Finding a Home with a Rabbit
by mangaballetgirl
Summary: Anato Yuhiko moves to a new country every year, but what happens when she moves to Japan and meets a certain Momiji Sohma? I suck at summaries and this is my first story. I hope you like it anyway. I own nothing but the plot and Anato! MomijixOC
1. Chapter 1

My homeroom was full of nothing but strangers this year. Again. Well that's what happens when you move not only to a new city but a new country every year. I hate it; but my parents work for a world wide trading company and it makes us move every year. And you know what's funny? Every year they say, "This is the last time, you get to stay there this time," but it's never true. So in a year's time we move again. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love seeing the world and learning about all the different cultures. That's great. It's just that, I wish I could settle down and I could make some friends and really get used to living in one place. Instead I always feel like I'm on some sort of extended vacation that never ends and while vacations are great you have to come back to reality at some point. And I never do. This year we're in Japan and I don't know why but I feel like we might actually stay here this time. I hope so.

So anyway here I am on the first day of my first year of high school in Japan; where I've never been before and therefore know no one. Even though it's everyone's first day I still have to stand in front of the class and introduce myself which is still awkward for me because I'm shy and self conscious.

"Hi, I'm Anato Yuhiko and I just moved to Japan about a week ago." I announced in perfect Japanese. _At least this year I don't have to learn a new language. Thanks dad._ My dad is Japanese so I learned the language from him while growing up. My mother is American so I can speak English fluently too.

I finish saying whatever else I need to say and go take the one empty seat in the back wondering whether I seemed too nervous.

I sit down and inwardly curse myself for forgetting the new book I bought yesterday for this very occasion. Homeroom.

Just as I prepared to endure what I expected to be a long boring period, my unhappy thoughts, which were dwelling on the forgotten book at home, were interrupted by a high, cheerful voice saying,

"Hi Ana-chan! I'm Momiji Sohma!"

It was the boy sitting to the left of me. Wait he was a boy wasn't he? He had blonde hair, looked like he was in middle school, and was wearing a girl's uniform so I wasn't sure. I was also surprised that this stranger had given me a nickname. I'd never had one before.

"Um, hi Momiji-san." I responded. I wasn't sure what else to say so I was glad that the person, whom I had decided was indeed a boy, went on to say,

"I'm really excited to start high school aren't you?" then before I could respond, "Where did you come from? Did you like it there? What was it like? Why did you come here instead? Do you like it here in Japan?"

Then on the other side of me a deeper, calmer voice said,

"Momiji, slow down. You're asking too many questions too fast. She can't even answer."

I turned to see another peculiar boy, because this one was definitely a boy; he was wearing the right uniform and everything. He had mostly white hair but I could see black hair underneath it in the back, which intrigued me.

"Oh you're right, sorry Ana-chan. This is my cousin Hatsuharu Sohma but we just call him Haru." Momiji explained.

"Hi Haru." I said.

"Hello Ana-chan, nice to meet you." Haru said as he bowed to me. I quickly bowed back and said,

"Nice to meet you too." _He's so polite._ I thought. _And he used my new nickname._ The nickname would take getting used to.

"So where _did_ you come from, Ana-chan?" Momiji asked again.

"Well last year I lived in Denmark. That was fun. They have the best amusement park in Copenhagen called Tivoli; it was great. Also in Denmark you bike everywhere." I ranted unexpectedly. It was unexpected for me because I'm so shy, however it was also unexpected for Momiji and Haru for a different reason.

"Last year? You lived somewhere else the year before that? Momiji inquired.

"Yep. And the year before that and the year before that and the year before that and so on." I replied.

"Why?" Momiji wanted to know.

"Because of my parent's job. The company they work for has us move to a new country every year always saying that, 'This time you can stay,' and always sending us away a year later." I told him rather gloomily.

"Wow! So you've been all over the world? That's so cool!" he cried excitedly, his eyes becoming huge as he started jumping up and down in his seat.

I giggled at how happy he looked and said,

"Yeah, it's pretty cool getting to see all these countries and learn their cultures. And I'm really happy that I get to be in Japan because I've always wanted to go to Japan. I love manga and anime and Japan is just awesome anyway. I mean, I love Japanese music as well as the culture of Japan and I'm amazed at how successful Japan is economically. I was actually really excited when I got all my money converted to yen. And- oh, wow I probably sound like some tourist don't I?" I finished my rant sheepishly. I was surprised that I had talked so freely. _Who knows? Maybe my shyness is going away._ I thought hopefully but doubtfully. If my shyness had gone away then I wouldn't be so embarrassed.

"Well yes, except most tourists don't speak fluent Japanese." Haru pointed out.

"Oh that's because my dad is Japanese so I learned the language as a child along with English because my mother is American." I explained.

"Wow! You know, you're really interesting Ana-chan!" Momiji exclaimed happily.

"Yes you are." Haru agreed lightly.

"Oh, well thank you!" I said surprised. "I don't know how interesting I really am but thanks."

"No, you're fascinating Ana-chan! Really, you are!" His eyes got all huge again. "It's not everyday you meet someone who's traveled all around the world! And you're really pretty too!" He added.

I started to blush and got really bashful,

"Aww, thank you, Momiji-kun." I smiled feeling almost embarrassed. People don't give me many compliments because they don't talk to me in general since I'm so not talkative.

For a moment Momiji looked like he was about to glomp me but from behind my back Haru gave him a warning look that said, "Don't do it." So instead he danced around in his chair squealing about how cute I was which caused me to do the same thing only thinking of him, so we looked like a couple of squealing idiots dancing in our chairs. Then the bell rang and I started to worry about finding my way to class. Luckily I had my next class with both Momiji and Haru; in fact I had all my classes with them. I was relieved when I found that out because it would mean that I was less likely to get lost and more importantly I would get to spend more time with my new friends. Never, for as long as I can remember, have I made friends so quickly. It almost made me giddy!

The morning classes went by without incident. Then at lunch Momiji and Haru introduced me to their friends, two of which were also cousins of theirs.

"Ana-chan, Ana-chan! Come here you have to meet everyone!" Momiji yelled as he dragged me over to a group of older students.

"Everyone this is Anato Yuhiko she just moved to Japan recently! Ana-chan, this is Tohru Honda, " he said pointing to a nice looking brown haired girl, "Yuki Sohma," who was an older also very girlish though beautiful, purple haired boy, "Kyo Sohma," an orange haired boy who kept giving death glares to the boy named Yuki, "Uotani Arisa," a blonde haired girl who wore a mask and a long skirt that kind of made her look like a Yankee, "and Hanajima Saki," who had beautiful jet-black hair, wore all black clothes, and had an otherworldly aura about her. As Momiji introduced each person I gave them a small wave or at least I would have if the kind looking Tohru hadn't given me a huge hug. Yuki politely said, "Nice to meet you, Miss Yuhiko," Kyo said, "Yeah, yeah hi," as he turned his head away, Uo patted me on the head and said, "Hey kiddo don't worry about orange top over there. He's always like that," Hana said to me, "Hello Ana-chan, you have very nice electric waves."

I was a little overwhelmed and didn't quite know how to respond to so much attention all at once. Eventually they all calmed down and started asking the same questions Momiji had asked which I answered still a little flustered.

When I got home, for the first time in a while I had a lot to tell my parents. They listened and seemed very happy that I had made so many new friends.

Exhausted I went to bed feeling excited for what tomorrow would bring and what would happen with my new friends.


	2. Chapter 2

The final bell rang interrupting the teacher's rant forcing her to just quickly remind us about our homework over the noise of scraping chairs and sudden chatter. I just barely managed to stuff all my textbooks, pens, and other supplies into my book bag, when Momiji grabbed my hand and started to drag me out of the room yelling,

"Come on, Ana-chan, let's go!" excitedly as he pulled me out of the school.

"Go where?" I asked, playing back the day in my mind, trying to find any clues he might have mentioned that might help me figure out the answer to this question. It was not an easy thing to do because even though I had only met him yesterday he had bombarded me with question after question, about me, my interests, my family, and the countries I've lived in. Haru had asked a few questions as well but after a while he decided that I deserved a break. I was relieved as well as a bit saddened when he told Momiji to let me breath. At lunch I got to see Tohru, Uo, Hana, Yuki, and Kyo again. I was fascinated by Hana's ability to sense electrical waves and amused by Kyo and his always fighting with either Yuki or Uo, and I couldn't get enough of how sweet Tohru was. However they too asked me tons of questions. I've never talked about myself for so long in my life! After lunch, the topic of conversation broadened some but as I recall there was never a time when either Momiji or Haru mentioned what they were doing after school. So I was listening intently when the small boy replied,

"To Shigure's house!"

"Who's Shigure?" I asked confused.

"He's another cousin of ours except he's old enough to own his own house. Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru live there with him." Momiji explained happily.

"Tohru? Why does Tohru live there?" I wondered aloud.

"I think Tohru should tell you that," he said unhelpfully.

It occurred to me that since we were all heading to the same destination, where was Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo? Shouldn't they be going this way too? Just before I could ask this question Momiji said,

"Come on, Ana-chan! We have to hurry up if we're going to get there before Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo! We're going to surprise them!" He started to pull me faster again. For a while we walked/ran through the woods and that made me happy because I love the woods. Then we came to a house in the middle of said forest. Momiji waltzed through the door and sang,

"Hello Shigure! I decided to come over today!" with me still hanging on for dear life behind him.

"Well, well, well, it's Momiji, Haru and a strange high school girl I've never seen before," said a pleasant voice, which came from a middle-aged man who had brown hair and wore a kimono. However unbeknownst to me, he was gleefully singing, "high school girls, high school girls, all for me, high school girls!" in his head.

"Hello, I am Shigure Sohma. What's you name?" He asked in reality.

"Oh, I'm Anato Yuhiko. I just met Momiji and Haru yesterday and we became friends. Momiji dragged er... brought me here unexpectedly and I don't mean to intrude." I said hastily, worried that this man might not want some strange girl barging into his house without warning. To my relief he only chuckled and reassured me,

"No, no, any friend of Momiji's is welcome here, please make yourself at home."

Before I could respond Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo walked through the door.

"We're ho- ANA! What are _you_ doing here?" Kyo asked incredulously.

WHACK!

"Don't be so rude, you idiot cat." Yuki said quite calmly after brutally hitting Kyo.

"It's such a nice surprise to see you, Miss Yuhiko. What brings you here on this fine afternoon?" he continued a little too politely, sounding as if he was rather enjoying himself.

Stifling my laughter, I responded,

"Well, Momiji brought me here... but Kyo? Are... are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kyo said through gritted teeth as he got up rubbing a growing bump on his head he continued still annoyed, "Momiji, what are you doing here and why did you bring _Ana_?"

WHACK!

"Didn't I already tell you not to be rude? You stupid cat!" Yuki said more loudly this time.

"Oh yeah, Rat? You wanna fight? Well, come on, let's fight!" Kyo shouted angrily at Yuki as a second bump grew.

"Ha ha! Kyo got hit twice!" Momiji teased.

WHACK!

"Waaaahhhh! Kyo's hitting me!" he whined a moment later rubbing a bump that was a bit smaller than Kyo's.

"Not in the house you boys." Shigure interrupted, "Go outside and leave me in here with Ana-chan, " he lifted my chin and seemed to be inspecting me, "and Tohru and-"

WHACK!

Shigure suddenly stopped talking and was nursing two bumps much bigger that Kyo's.

Yuki and Kyo walked over to the table, sat down, and didn't say anything anymore, glaring into space. After a moment of silence I couldn't resist the temptation any longer and burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry." I said through the laughter, "It's just that all of you are so funny!"

Yuki and Kyo sweat dropped but Momiji started laughing along with me and Haru chuckled, Tohru was already off getting five ice packs to deal with the bumps on Kyo, Momiji, and Shigure's heads.

"I like your sense of humor Ana-chan." Momiji said, his eyes twinkling even as he continued to rub his head. _My god, he is so adorable! I just want to eat him up!_ I thought inwardly squealing.

"I don't like it so much." Shigure complained, "Ana-chan you're so cruel to laugh at my pain." He was now holding two ice packs to the aching lumps on his head.

"No, no! I wasn't laughing at you pain!" I said hastily suddenly feeling guilty, "I was laughing at how cute and hilarious Yuki and Kyo's reaction were." To my distress, Kyo, who was also sporting tow ice packs, and Yuki seemed to get a little depressed.

"I-I mean, I liked your reactions! Don't get depressed! Please, I didn't mean to upset you! I was just- Oh no, now I've made it all awkward." I gushed in distress. Now I felt even guiltier. Then I was glomped by Tohru, who said,

"Don't worry Ana-chan. It's not awkward."

"That's right, you're too cute for it to be awkward Ana-chan" chimed in Momiji, who had tied his one ice pack around his head using a ribbon that made him look almost like he had bunny ears. I blushed,

"Aww. You guys are too nice to me. Thank you." I said shyly. Momiji, in all his cuteness, was suddenly right next to me.

"So Ana-chan, I believe I heard these three here," Shigure started rather abruptly, gesturing to Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo, "talking about you yesterday. Am I right in saying that you move to a new country every year because of your parents job, lived in Denmark last year, have a Japanese father and an American mother and therefore, can speak both English and Japanese?"

"Um, yes." I confirmed, very surprised at the accuracy of the little summary he'd just given. And judging from the looks of everyone else, I wasn't the only one.

"Well, do you have any hobbies?" He asked curiously.

"Yes, yes I do. One of my more serious hobbies is dance, any kind of dance. I make a point to try to learn any dances native to the country I'm living in. So naturally I have a very wide spectrum of dance that I do. Let's see, I do ballet, that's huge just about everywhere, modern, interpretive, jazz, tap, belly dancing, the tango, the salsa, African tribal dances, and Indian dance. Of course I'm not really good at all of them but I'm pretty decent at most of them." I finally finished.

"What are you best at?" Tohru asked.

"Well I'm best at ballet, mostly because it's so popular and it's always easy to find classes somewhere. I guess I'm next best at modern depending on who teaches is. I'm good a jazz too. When it comes to tap I miserably fail but I enjoy the classes anyway. I'm not bad at belly dancing but I'm horrible at the tango and the salsa, basically any ballroom dance is hard for me but I enjoy a challenge. The African tribal dances were lots of fun and they're so full of energy. And then there's the Indian dance, oh my god, everything is so particular! I mean, they choreograph your eyes! It's still fun but man, is it hard! Oh and I almost forgot interpretive dance but then it's a lot like modern but there are lots of little differences that add up to make them different dance styles." I finished, again surprising myself at how much I talked but then again I've been answering questions like these for two days in a row so I guess I'm just getting used to it, plus I found it really nice to have so many people to rant to.

After a little bit of time when they all tried to process the tidal wave of information I had just thrown at them, Yuki asked,

"Is that your only hobby? It sounds really tiring."

"Oh no, another hobby of mine is reading, I love to read books and manga. I also enjoy things like walking through the woods and climbing trees. I like rock climbing too." I informed them all.

The questions continued on until I decided that it was time for me to go home. I called my parents to tell them I was not only alive and well but also en route. To my surprise Momiji volunteered to walk me home.

Feeling very honored I said yes.

Halfway home I realized that I had forgotten my book bag in Shigure's house. We turned back. When the house came into view Momiji suddenly asked.

"Ana-chan, do you like me?"

I was taken aback by this and quickly assured him, "Of course I do! Why would you ask such a thing?"

"Well sometimes people don't like me because they think I'm annoying or too childish." He confided sadly.

"Well they are either Kyo or seriously uncool." I declared fiercely. Then more gently and sincerely I assured him,

"Momiji, you childishness only adds to your charm. I think you're the cutest little, 16 year old, boy I've ever seen." As I said it I felt my cheeks heat up and could do nothing but smile.

By this time we were already at the door to the house and as I went to open it Momiji suddenly gave in and did what he'd been dying to do since he met me,

"Ana-chan you're way cuter than me! You're the cutest person in the whole world!" he half shouted half squealed as he glomped me.

As soon as he hugged me there was a poof and a cloud of dust, which obscured my vision. When the dust cleared away I discovered that Momiji had vanished to be replaced by a rabbit that was drowning in Momiji's clothes.

A/N- Hi! I'm sorry there wasn't an author's note in the last chapter. I'm new to fanfiction and used to Quizilla, so I'm still working out the kinks. Well please rate, or even better review so that I know that someone other than my best friend is reading this. Please? :)


	3. Chapter 3

~Recap! Momiji glomped Anato and turned into a bunny! ~

I stared at the bunny blankly. The door opened. I turned to see Tohru poking her head out curiously; I looked at her, back at the bunny, then back to Tohru, then back to the bunny; my expression a mixture of shock and confusion. Mostly shock.

"W-what? I- where- where'd Momiji- he- he was- then- uh-... bunny!" I stammered trying to process the situation. Coherent speech had escaped me. A major reason for this was that the slight sleepiness I had felt earlier had suddenly become extreme tiredness, which dulled my mind, plus the fact that, you know, Momiji had turned into a bunny.

Shigure and Haru appeared from behind Tohru. Shigure quickly took in the fact that Momiji was a bunny and that I was delirious and said,

"Come here Ana-chan, you need to get some sleep. Being dragged around by Momiji and answering questions all day must have made you very tired."

When I failed to say anything and started to bend down to pick up the bunny, Shigure and Haru came over and helped me stand up again then started to head back toward the house.

Being in my exhausted and befuddled state, I impulsively hugged the people nearest to me. Who were, of course, Shigure and Haru. And so I was engulfed in two more poofs of dust which when cleared, revealed a dog in Shigure's place and a cow in Haru's.

"Wha-! Sh-Shigure and H-Haru too?" I began hyperventilating.

Starting to seriously doubt my sanity I tried to run to the house to see if Yuki or Kyo were gone too. Just when said boys appeared in the doorway behind Tohru, who looked like she had frozen mid sweat drop her eyes wide, I slipped on a piece of clothing and fell dramatically. Instinctively the two remaining human boys jumped out and tried to catch me, which only resulted in two more poofs of dust temporarily hiding a rat and a cat in the place of my would be saviors.

"Why is everyone turning into animals? It's whenever they touch me! I must have some sort of disease or something. Tohru stay away from me I might make you an animal too! I've got to go into hiding who knows what will happen if I stay near people! Maybe I'm contagious!" I yelled deranged.

"MOMIJI, YOU IDIOT! WHY'D YOU HAVE TO GO AND HUG HER? LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" The cat screamed in Kyo's voice at the bunny.

"But, she was so _cute! _I couldn't help it." The bunny said in Momiji's voice.

"They... talk." I breathed.

This was too much for me. Hysterical, exhausted, and confused as I was, these animals talking in voices I recognized was the last straw. I fainted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Momiji's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ana-chan fainted.

For a moment we all looked at her. Then we all changed back and Tohru hurriedly turned away as we put on our clothes. Wordlessly we all teamed up to carry her in careful not to hug her. We put Ana-chan down on Tohru's bed and went downstairs again, Tohru staying to take care of the unconscious girl and call said girl's parents.

Once the rest of us got downstairs they all turned to look at me.

"But," sniff, "she was," sniff, "_so_ cute." I made my eyes get really big and pleaded guiltily.

"That's no excuse to hug her, you know there are lots of reasons that we are kept a secret. The way Miss Yuhiko just reacted is one of them." Yuki said sounding almost bitter.

"Oh I think the only reason she overreacted was because she was too tired like Shigure said." I countered.

"I only said that so we could get her inside and convince her it was a dream." Shigure said.

"I know, but you were right, I think. I'm almost positive that if Ana-chan hadn't been so sleepy she wouldn't have reacted that way!" I implored.

"She's still not allowed to know." Haru pointed out.

"But-"

"Oh just give up already. You messed up and she's not supposed to know. I'm going to bed." Kyo said and then walked out of the room.

"He didn't have to be so blunt," Shigure admitted, "but Kyo is right and I think we all should get some sleep now. Good night."

Yuki and Haru agreed and went off to bed.

Anato was my best friend, even though I'd only known her for two days, and I didn't want to lose any time I had to spend with her. I really hoped that the meeting with Akito, which would most, definitely happen tomorrow, would go well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Anato's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I awoke the next morning, lying on Tohru's bed, I felt well rested and clear-minded. I also remembered what had happened last night or at least I thought I did. I wasn't sure what was real and what was just some delusional dream. It had all seemed real.

Instead of freaking out all over again I took advantage of my clear mind and rationally thought about what happened or what I had dreamed. I realized and understood things I had missed while being crazed. After I had analyzed all that had or had not occurred, the door was gently opened and Tohru came in carrying a tray of delicious looking food.

"Good morning." she said cheerfully then with some concern she asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Clear-minded, rested and clear-minded. And I also remember what happened last night. Well, I have some questions." I told her. She sweat dropped.

"Oh... well... you see...um..." she stammered uneasily. _That's weird why is she so nervous? Did it actually happen?_ I wondered to myself a plan forming in my mind.

Just then Shigure walked in.

"Good morning you two! Tohru, could you go downstairs and make sure Kyo doesn't kill Momiji? And Ana-chan I hope you're feeling better-"

"You changed back." I said bluntly as Tohru left the room.

He sweat dropped.

"Change- changed back. I'm not sure what you mean." He also sounded uneasy.

_Yep. That confirms it._ I thought then said aloud,

"I mean, last night you all turned into animals and I was just noticing how you had changed back."

He sweat dropped again.

"T-turn into animals? Ha ha you must have had a stra-"

"Don't tell me I had a dream. I just had the most refreshing and enlightening sleep I've had in a long time. I remember everything that happened last night very clearly. Now I've got a lot of questions. And honestly, when Tohru came in here, I was about to say that I wasn't sure what was real and what was a dream when I noticed Tohru's reaction and then you came in and you had the same reaction. So don't tell me it was a dream, you've already proved otherwise." I said in a business like manner that was very unlike me. Must be some side affect of being "enlightened."

Shigure sweat dropped just a little bit more before he sighed.

"Well, I guess there's no avoiding it. First, what do you know about the zodiac?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" I demanded incredulously.

"It has everything to do with everything." he replied.

"Well I don't know a lot." I admitted still not seeing how it was at all relevant.

"Then I'll tell you." And he told me the myth of how god had invited all the animals to dinner, how the mouse had tricked the cat, and in reality, how the Sohma family was cursed.

"And so whenever we are extremely weak or are hugged by a member of the opposite sex we transform into whatever animal in the zodiac we are or in Kyo's case a cat." He finished.

I thought this over then wondered,

"What about Tohru? She's not a Sohma. Why does she, you know, live here?"

"Ah, well she also discovered our secret and she didn't have anywhere else to stay."

I had more questions on the matter but decided to ask Tohru. Shigure left and I ate my breakfast. Then I went downstairs. As I neared the kitchen I heard an increasingly familiar WHACK and a familiar voice crying,

"Waaaaahhhh! Kyo's hitting me!"

I chuckled as I walked into the room to see a crying Momiji and a grumpy Kyo. Yuki and Haru were eating their breakfast indifferently and Tohru sweat dropped.

"Good morning. What are you two still doing here?" I asked directing my question to Haru and Momiji.

"I decided to stay because I was worried about you." Momiji said.

"I didn't want to leave here all alone, in case I got swept away in a whirlwind and-" Haru began.

"Basically he didn't want to get lost." Kyo interrupted.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or sweat drop at that and before I could decide Shigure came in and said,

"I forgot to tell you Ana-chan we have to tell the head of the family that another girl has discovered the big Sohma family secret and he might decide that we will have to erase your memory."

"Wait, WHAT?"

When I got home it took a lot for me to not tell my parents _everything_. You know to get it off my chest, so instead I put some music on and danced until I couldn't move and flopped onto my bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shigure's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked at Akito and waited for the head of the clan to say something. Finally he said,

"She moves away after a year?"

"Yes." I confirmed.

There was more silence. Then,

"Well, I guess there would be no harm in letting her know if she's only going to be here a year. Let's see what happens." Then he thought, _If any of them get close to her they'll see after she moves away that it's safer to just stay with me._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Anato's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So I get to keep my memory!" I asked relieved.

"Yep! He figured since you're only going to be here a year it'll be okay!" Shigure said cheerfully.

_Thank goodness!_ I didn't want to admit it but I had been really worried about losing my memory. Even though I knew they had every right to want to keep their curse a secret, it was just that even though they had assured me otherwise I couldn't shake the feeling that I would forget them entirely not just forget them turning into animals. That scared me a lot. These people were some of the best friends I'd ever had; especially Momiji. He reminded me of one of my best friends from another country except he was ten times more energetic, outgoing, and sweet than she had been. He was cuter too. But forget all that sad stuff now! I could keep my memory!

A/N- Yay! Here's chapter 3! I love posting these because I get to go back and correct all the stupid mistakes that I missed when I posted them on Quizilla! So be thankful that you are reading the revised, better version of the story! Message me! Please? Maybe? I'll give you imaginary cookies. And a hug! Please? Message me?


	4. Chapter 4

"What countries have you lived in again?"

"Momiji! I've already told you that like 13 times."

"I'll write it down this time."

I sighed. "Fine," It was the Monday after my very eventful weekend and the hyperactive bunny boy had asked the question whose answer seemed to go in one ear and out the other, "Do you want me to tell them in chronological order from when I was born?"

His eyes got wide,

"That would be great!" I sweat dropped. I had been sarcastic or at least I thought I had.

All right, I was born in America, and then we moved to... France, then it was Argentina, the Canada, then... I think America again, then Britain, no France again, _then_ Britain, then Italy, then America a third time, then Spain, India, South Africa, South Korea, Denmark, and now Japan." Momiji hurriedly finished writing it down then said,

"Yay now I'll always be able to see it!" He looked like he was about to ask another question but I was thirsty so I told him so and left to go to the water fountain. I got my drink and turned to go back to class but a voice called,

"Miss Yuhiko!" I turned again to see Yuki. I smiled and said,

"Hi Yuki, you don't have to call me that. It feels so formal. You can just call me Anato... or Ana-chan. I always forget my new nickname, Ana-chan."

"Okay then, Ana-chan, I just wanted to apologize for surprising you over the weekend." he confessed.

"Oh no problem! I'm actually kinda glad I know. I feel much closer to everyone now."

We said good-bye and I again tried to make my way back to class but I was stopped, again. This time it was by a trio of girls who first did this dance/cheer thing that went like this,

"We love Yuki! La la la la la la la la la la! La la la la la la la la la la! Yuki! Yuki!" and so on then they stood in my way glaring at me. It was hard to suppress my laughter after that cheer thing.

"So you're new here huh?" One asked rudely.

"Well, we're here to tell you that we are the Prince Yuki Fan Club!" A second stated proudly.

"Yeah, and we got dibs, girl!" the third finished. Each time they talked their hair did this absurd thing and seemed to stand on end.

"What?" I managed still processing the accusations, "'Prince' Yuki? Why- I was just talking to him. He's my friend."

"Oh yeah, well apparently over the weekend you got closer."

"Well yeah, closer friends. Look Momiji dragged me to your precious Yuki's house after school on Friday and we, plus some other friends, ended up staying the night. And anyway Momiji was the one who grabbed my hand and dragged me there I actually had plans (to go home). Not that I didn't enjoy being there." I said but unfortunately they didn't hear anything past 'Yuki's house.'

"You stayed at his house?" They looked like they were about to beat me to a pulp. I was about to again try to desperately tell them that Momiji dragged me there when a voice said,

"Watch who you idiots are bulling. Leave poor innocent Ana-chan alone." Uo suddenly came to the rescue, though her words may or may not actually been heard because the fangirls were already running away from Hana who had dark purple clouds charged with electricity around her head, and was simultaneously glaring down and advancing on them. Uo hugged me and cooed,

"Aww did those mean girls bother you. Don't worry, they won't do it again. Hana, you scared them away you can relax now."

Still looking in the direction the fangirls retreated I asked,

"Um, who were those people again? And why were they harassing me about Yuki?"

"Those ere the 'Prince 'Yuki fan club girls, they worship Yuki and bully any girl who dares to look at him funny. They pick on Tohru a lot too. Luckily Hana here senses whenever they start bully Tohru, or you apparently." Uo explained as Hana came back completely calm again she told me,

"They shouldn't be bothering you any time soon."

"Oh well thank you." I would have said more but I noticed that we were the only ones still in the hall.

"Well I have to get back to my homeroom now. Thanks for coming when you did, Hana and Uo, I wasn't sure how to respond to those fangirls. See you at lunch."

"No problem. See ya."

And I finally made it back to my homeroom just as the bell rang. At lunch Tohru looked at me concerned and said,

"Ana-chan, are you okay? I heard you were bullied today. I hope they didn't hurt you." I noticed that Momiji looked a bit worried even though I had told him this morning I was fine.

"Oh no," I assured her, "they couldn't hurt me and Hana and Uo came before they could even try."

After school Momiji dragged me to Shigure's house again but this time Hana and Uo decided to come along as well. After a while of being there Momiji said,

"Ana-chan, dance for us, dance for us!"

"Oh I would love that." Tohru agreed,

"Yeah that would be great." Uo said,

"That would be nice." Hana said and everyone else agreed with them. I was shocked by the sudden request.

"Huh- I- no. I can't. I mean I don't know what to show you and I don't have any music maybe I'll work on something and show you that but I can't right now. I mean if I did it would look really bad and then you would think I was some sort of idiot." I babbled but Momiji just said,

"We don't need a big routine! Just do something like a pirouette!"

I sighed again, "Okay, here I go," I took off my shoes and started the preparation, with turned out legs I did a tendu side (extended my leg to the side my toes pointed and my leg still turned out), closed in fifth position which means my opposite heals and toes were touching, or at least they would be if I had perfect turn out, and did a plié or bent my legs still turned out, I had one arm in front of me making half an 'o' shape and the other to the side of me, also rounded, while I was looking at a point in front of me, then I pushed off to passé(when you balance on one leg with the other toe at the knee so that the leg you aren't standing on looks like a flag) as I opened the arm that was in front of me to the side initiating the turn then closed my arms in front of me so they made a full 'o' shape to give me more force while still looking at the same spot as long as possible before I had to look away and looking back at it quickly, I reminded myself to be as lifted and straight as possible and tensed my stomach and backside muscles. I turned all the way around not once but twice! Making sure to keep my eyes on that spot as long as possible causing my head to snap around twice as well. When I got back to the front, my arms remaining in the round shape in front of me that they had been in for the majority of the turn, I landed in fifth position plié again with complete control. Of course all this only took a few seconds but a ton of concentration and effort. I was surprised and proud of myself because I had just done a perfect double pirouette. When I finished everyone applauded and I curtsied. And of course I was smiling the whole time not just because I was happy but because I was performing and the audience would want to see a happy face, it was part of the turn. There are lots of things a dancer has to think about.

"Do another dance move!" Momiji shouted excitedly.

"Hmm. Well if I wasn't wearing this skirt I would show you a penché, when I tip over standing up basically trying to do a vertical split, but that would be very revealing."

"You can borrow my shorts." Tohru suggested. I agreed because I kinda wanted to show off my flexibility and leg height. I'm almost always confident when performing something except on the spur of the moment routines. I went upstairs with Tohru and put on the shorts she gave me. We went back downstairs again and everyone was very excited and anticipated what was coming. I lifted my straight, turned out leg with pointed toes to the back making it go higher and higher and also making sure my hips still faced straight front and I didn't stick out my chest while keeping it lifted. When my leg got to a certain height I started the tilt part and I let my chest lower while pushing my leg up further still. I held one arm, mostly straight with the palm down, in front of me and the other to the to the side. I looked over my hand as if there was a huge, beautiful ring on it and I was, again, smiling. I made sure that I was standing on the balls of my supporting foot and that the standing leg was as turned out as the one in the air. I got almost into a split then righted myself and brought my leg back down into fifth again gracefully. I was surprised that I had balanced so well. My spectators were either silent in awe or were exclaiming, "Ow! I hurt just looking at that!"

I grinned shyly.

"Yeah, I'm flexible." I stated simply.

"That's the understatement of the century." Uo told the room at large, which agreed with her, along with everyone else.

Momiji looked like he was about to ask for me to do something else but I cut in,

"If you want to see anything else you'll have to wait until I can find a place to take class then see if I can figure out a routine with the teacher unless they have a performance I can take part in. Do any of you know of such a place?" I asked.

"I wouldn't know of any. I never even thought about dance when I was a kid. I was too busy in the gang." Uo said casually.

"You were too busy with WHAT?" I'd never heard about Uo's past.

"Long story short I was in a gang then left because of Tohru and her mom." Uo quickly summarized.

"I wasn't particularly interested in dance either." Hana said.

"I thought about taking dance but I didn't want to cause my mother any unnecessary trouble." Tohru said apologetically.

I didn't even need Yuki, Kyo, or Momiji to tell me that they hadn't taken dance class. I had to suppress my laughter at the thought of Yuki or Kyo in a dance class and Momiji would be too hyper and anyway they would all have a hard time finding classes that didn't have any girls in them. There was the possibility that Shigure had at least seen a place once sometime throughout his years here or maybe heard of one, but he told me

"There's no place I can think of. Sorry. You'll have to find somewhere on your own."

"That's okay, that's what I usually end up doing anyway." I waved it off. I had been hoping to have at least one suggestion, it was always hard to find a place but I did it anyway because I knew that there was no other way that I was going to get any exercise and dance was my passion.

Uo apparently thought that Kyo had had dance training as a child because she said in an offensive tone,

"What about you, orange top? Don't you know a place to dance? You look like the type who would."

"What's that supposed to mean, you Yankee? Are you saying I'm weak?" a stormy cloud of anger was gathering around him.

"Yeah I am and what are you going to do about it?" Clouds starting to surround her too.

"I'm gonna kick your ass! That's what!" he yelled. Suddenly Uo had some strange dusting device and lashed it out and it wrapped around his foot. Suddenly they were on a rock with a wave beating against it and Uo was holding Kyo by the ankle in a triumphant pose. (see the new years episode) Tohru did her signature sweat drop, Shigure reminded them not to damage the house, Yuki ignored the whole display of idiocy, Hana seemed to enjoy the electrical waves, and I burst out laughing.

My life here was most definitely going to be the very interesting. I doubted very much that I would be bored at any time this coming year.

My parents called and said it was time for me to come home. It had been a long but enjoyable day. I slept soundly and for the hundredth time since I meet Momiji looked forward to what would come in the future then worried about leaving at the end of the year.

A/N-Hi! If you're wondering the reason for the in depth descriptions of those two ballet moves is because I am a dance myself and those are all the things that go through my mind and it was really hard to actually write in a way that would make sense for the average person. Tell me if I succeeded. Oh and by the way sorry if saying message me is weird I just realized that on fanfiction you review a story or whatever because on Quizilla you message the person. Sorry, I just got an account a few days ago. Oh and thank you DWPrincess29 for reviewing my story. It made me very happy :)


	5. Chapter 5

A/N- Okay so most of this chapter is my adaption of the scene in the anime where Haru beats the crap out of the student council president. I had to change some things so that it would fit in my story but I tried to keep it as accurate as possible. Also, it might be a while before the next update because I still have to write it :) Just to remind you all, I Don't Own Anything! Enjoy the chapter then rate and review! Oh and this might be more K+ because of Black Haru, just in case anybody cares.

"Anato! Come on and get your breakfast."

"I'm coming." I called to my mother. A few days had passed since my performance. And by performance I mean when I did the pirouette in Shigure's house. Nothing of significance had happened since then. Several small things happened some involving Kyo and his temper, some involving Momiji and his cuteness. It was safe to say that my life in Japan with my new friends was going great.

I entered the kitchen and poured myself a bowl of cereal but didn't pour any milk. I never do I don't like how it gets all soggy. As I was eating I talked to my mom about my new friends. I had yet to introduce them to anyone but I had told her and dad all about them, leaving out the Sohma family secret. For some reason mom can never remember anything I tell her so at one point when I was talking about Momiji she asked,

"Momiji... he's the small one who dresses in the girls' uniform, right?"

"Yeah."

"Is he really aloud to do that? Wear the girls' uniform, I mean. Don't the teachers say something? And what do the students say?" This question made me snicker.

"What's so funny?"

"Well..." I thought of the one time this very subject had come up at school.

*Flashback*

It was the second day of school and Momiji was again dragging me by the hand to some unknown destination. Then I heard Tohru's voice say,

"Momiji!" And Momiji responded,

"Tohru!"

"Hi there," she replied, then Kyo interrupted,

WHACK!

"What are you stupid?"

"Waaaaahhhhhhh! Kyo's hitting me!"

"Idiot! Didn't I tell you not to wear a girls' uniform!" then Haru, who had been walking with us, said,

"I already told you it's fine, it suits him."

"Yeah, right," agreed Momiji,

"Uh-huh." agreed Tohru,

"Yeah it does," agreed me, I mean, I agreed.

"I still don't see what difference dose that make?" just then Yuki showed up and said,

"Momiji, why in the world are you still wearing that?" Haru sort of stiffened did this strange swooping movement toward Yuki in greeting, after which Yuki just said,

"Hello, Haru."

After that Tohru asked,

"So Yuki are you finished with all of your work yet?"

"No, not quite. I was just making the rounds when I heard the commotion." Suddenly Momiji announced,

"Hey listen, listen! I'm really not supposed to goof around to much when I'm here, so I'm gonna try to play it cool at school!"

"How the hell can you call wearing a dress cool?" Kyo yelled then suddenly a voice came out of nowhere saying,

"I find that point Kyo Sohma, class 2D," we all turned to see three people, a boy with glasses and two girls on either side of him also with glasses standing with their hands on their hips and their legs apart, like some military pose, the boy in the middle, who was the one who had spoken, continued,

"And while I find that orange hair of yours disagreeable I will ignore that for the moment, what I cannot ignore is a boy who would wear a girls uniform to school. This is beyond outrageous and even if your teachers allow it I will not, for I am this school's student council president Makoto Takai, also known as Captain of the Campus Defense Force!" The girls on either side of him clapped, rather unenthusiastically. While I was still trying to catch up with everything that went on, Kyo, Yuki, and Haru all said at the same time,

"What a complete idiot." Makoto Takai continued further,

"I can see already that you are going to be a problem student and the same goes for you Hatsuharu Sohma." Haru seemed to me to be a little irritated. However the student council president did not see this and continued further still to say,

"I will not tolerate that white hair or those gaudy necklaces." At this Yuki politely interrupted,

"President Takai, it's his natural color." Seeing Yuki, President Takai lowered his voice and blushed slightly, he said,

"Oh Yuki, so nice to see you but," his voice was loud again when he said, "natural color? I can see that his hairline is black!" To which Yuki only responded,

"Yes that's natural too." President Takai countered as Haru started to scratch his ear which seemed to make some noise sort of like when you wind up a toy,

"That's ridiculous! I don't believe it!" I, myself was also interested in this topic and I pondered it while Tohru thought, _This is a problem, I guess we can't really tell them it's cause he's a cow._ Then President Takai continued, directing his attention once again to Momiji, as Haru winded he ear,

"And I suppose wearing this dress is _natural_ for you, Momiji Sohma?" Haru continued his winding,

"Have you no pride as a man?" Haru continued winding,

"You had best change you ways and your clothes before this incident becomes the ruin of your life." In response to this Momiji sniffed,

"But this uniform,-" sniff, "looks better on me."

Tohru intervened, "Please, uh, don't yell at him anymore," but President Takai only said,

"If I am yelling at him, Tohru Honda, it so that he hears this advice, which should've been obvious to anybody with common sense-"

"Shut up." Haru said suddenly just as I was about to get annoyed with the guy. It was Haru this time, who continued,

"Quite shoutin' like you're king of the freakin' world. You making my ears bleed you bastard" Personally I was shocked that Haru could even say such things, but there he was saying them. Haru continued further,

"Now I've got some common sense for you," President Takai started to back up clearly taken aback as Haru advanced on him and said,

"If I wore a tie it wouldn't change who I am. If I had no piercings it wouldn't mean I'm nice, and if my hair was black it wouldn't stop me from kicking your ass!" he grabbed the president by his shirt,

"Who do you think you are anyway do you think you're god? Huh?" I was standing there in shock and everyone else was thinking, _Black Haru._ Haru suddenly was waving the President around like a rag doll saying,

"What's the matter with you? Run out of things to say? You're not so high and mighty now?"

Kyo intervened,

"Cut it out he's just an idiot!" Which made me want to crack up. Of course by now Haru was swinging the poor president around in circles, not stopping this he said,

"No one asked you, you stupid cat!"

"Don't call me stupid!" Kyo growled and Haru abruptly stopped torturing the president and paid attention to Kyo,

"You ran away from our last fight and you still think you can tell me what to do?"

"What? You were the one who called it off, remember!"

"Well now I'm calling it back on!" flames erupted around them

"That's fine with me!" As Kyo said this, out of nowhere Momiji asked holding three lollipops,

"Hey, Tohru, Ana-chan, do you want some candy?" We both sweat dropped and said,

"Uh, no thank you." Then Haru started talking the girls who were with the president, scaring them both,"Hey, sweetheart-" Kyo interjected,

"Leave them alone," through gritted teeth but Haru just ignored him and said,

"Tell me something, you girls think Momiji's outfit is okay don't you? In time, after he grows up some more, then he'll be able to wear men's clothing, and if you think he looks good in that girls uniform, just imagine what he'll look like as an adult." Jackpot. A beautiful image appeared in my mind and I suddenly liked this new Haru a lot more and the other girls agreed with me.

"Lovely." They said dreamily. The president desperately shouted,

"Don't get brainwashed!" But they were, and I kinda was too. Haru continued,

"For now he should wear the clothes that look best on him." But the president stubbornly countered,

"No there's a dress code! It's not fair to the other students!"

Haru replied,

"You stubborn idiot. What would you do if it was Yuki wearing a girls uniform, huh?" The president's glasses flashed white and while he saw an image of Yuki wearing such a thing, Yuki said through gritted teeth,

"Haru, cut it out or I will cut you off."

"Aww, have my words, made you angry?" Haru replied before the president suddenly said,

"It's beautiful." And Yuki then quickly demanded,

"Stop imagining me!" Bringing the idiot back down to earth. He said quietly,

"My, I guess I got carried away, you are a worthy opponent Hatsuharu Sohma but still," then loudly again,

"Your hair is unacceptable and you'll never convince me that's your natural color!" Thinking he had won he looked very smug, but the look vanished when Haru grabbed him by the shirt again and dragged him into the boy's bathroom. It was quite for a few seconds, which seemed a lot longer that that, then they came out and the president said,

"Impressive evidence, there are still many strange things in this world unknown to me." As he polished his glasses. At this Yuki and Kyo seemed to have an epiphany.

"He didn't!" Kyo said in horror.

"I think he did!" Yuki said in equal horror. Haru just looked smug. The president started to retreat, his henchwomen still daydreaming about Momiji, as he said,

"You may have won today Sohma but you won't be so lucky next time! I'll get you! I'll get you all!" And he vanished. Then Momiji beat me to asking the question,

"So who were those people anyway?" and Haru said,

"Beat the hell out of me." as Yuki and Kyo looked very tired.

Tohru asked,

"Um, Hatsuharu, I don't understand." Then I continued her question,

"Yeah, how did you manage to convince him that's your natural hair color?" Yuki and Kyo looked even more awkward, and Haru replied,

"Alright, why don't you come with me and see for yourselves," before either of us could respond,

WHACK!

Yuki and Kyo came... to the rescue? They looked tired again as they said,

"That Black Haru is too much." This was Kyo. And Tohru tried again,

"Um, so how did he?" I was just as curious, if fact more curious, I wanted to hear about this 'Black Haru' but Yuki just said,

"Never-mind, don't worry about it Miss Honda and Miss Yuhiko." Just then Haru came to and seemed to be back to his normal self. He sat up and said,

"Why do I feel so exhausted?" Kyo fell to his knees,

"Oh brother, you think you're exhausted?" Just then the bell rang but I remembered Yuki and Kyo seemed to carry around a black cloud after that and seemed to slide rather than walk away.

~End Flashback~

I looked at the clock and saw I had to get to school.

"I'll tell you later when I have more time. It's a funny story." I told my mom as my dad walked in.

"But you never answered my original question." Mom protested.

"What question?" Dad asked.

"I'll tell you both after school, the story answers both questions. Bye!" I said walking out the door.

"Bye!" Mom called.

"I have no idea what's going on but bye! Have a good day!" Dad yelled as I closed the door.

And I was off to school, looking forward to going home and wondering why I hadn't told them that before, then realizing that, that was the day I had found out their family secret; an event that majorly eclipsed the scene in the hallway. Thinking of this event I remembered Shigure telling me that they transformed in to the twelve animals of the zodiac plus the cat and that made thirteen people who could transform into animals, but I only knew five. I wondered if I would ever get to meet the other members of the zodiac one day as I arrived at school.


	6. Chapter 6

"Why do we _all_ have to go to the store, again?" I asked from the back seat of the car on our way to the grocery store.

"So that you can choose what you want for snacks, dessert, and whatever else you want. And also so we can have some family time." Mom answered cheerfully.

"Family time at the grocery store?" I raised my eyebrow.

"No, family time now, in the car." Dad corrected.

"And what did you call it when I was telling you about Black Haru when we were at home? Story time?"

"Yep! That and Boring Time." My dad added teasingly, looking back and smiling at me. I looked around me and found a pen in the seat next to me. I grabbed it and playfully threw it at him. He would have retaliated except he was in the passenger seat and couldn't reach back. I sat smugly not worrying about the revenge that would come later.

We arrived at the grocery store and all got out. We were in the chips section when I heard a loud, carefree, enthusiastic voice saying,

"Come now, brother, don't be like that. We have to strengthen our bond!" The voice seemed to come from the aisle next to us.

"Well there's a lively one." Mom said as she raised an eyebrow. Then we heard a loud crash accompanied by a cry of pain, followed by a seemingly calm and polite voice that I recognized, saying,

"Step over that, Miss Honda, you don't want to get any dirt on your shoes."

"Miss Honda... Was that really Yuki?" I wondered aloud. My parents looked at me in surprise.

"Do you know those people?" Mom asked me as I rushed to see the next aisle.

"I think so." I called back to her. I rounded the corner. Sure enough there was Yuki and Tohru walking away from a figure that was popping up from the ground. He looked a lot like Yuki except he had long silver hair and was around Shigure's age. He chased after Yuki and Tohru whining energetically,

"Yuki! You're so cruel!" Yuki was about to answer when I called,

"Yuki! Tohru!" They turned around in surprise.

"Ana-chan!" Tohru called as my parents finally caught up to me. Before anyone could say anything the man whom Yuki had thrown to the ground, because that was obviously what happened, brightened and said,

"A friend of my dear Yuki?" He was suddenly shaking my hand vigorously and continued, "Well any friend of Yuki's is a friend of mine!" Before he could continue further as he clearly intended to, there was a-

WHACK!

And he was on the ground again at my feet.

"Are you sure you know these people?" Mom asked again.

"Well, I don't know him," I admitted pointing to the man on the ground, "but this is Yuki Sohma," I gestured to him, "and this is Tohru Honda," I pointed her out as well, "Yuki, Tohru, these are my parents and who is that?" I first gestured to my parents then pointed at the man on the ground again. Yuki came forward stepping over the man and politely greeting my parents saying,

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Yuhiko. I'm Yuki Sohma a classmate of Anato's." Then Tohru came and said,

"Hello, I'm Tohru Honda, I'm also Ana-chan's friend." She used my nickname. I realized that I had forgotten to tell my parents about my new nickname. Before they could ask about it I asked,

"And what about him?" As the mysterious, energetic, frequently hit man started to get up. When he heard the question he popped up again like he did before and started shaking my parents' and my hands, introducing himself,

"I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Ayame Sohma, Yuki's older brother!"

"Um... hi. Does your brother usually hit you that much?" I asked.

"Oh, you see Yuki and I-"

WHACK!

"I only hit him when he annoys me." Yuki told my parents and me.

"Well that seems to be an awful lot." Dad said a brow raised.

"At least he talks to me now." Ayame piped up.

"He didn't in the past?" I asked.

"It's a long story." Ayame said and then lit up and grabbed my hand.

"Come Ana-chan! I'll tell you all about me and Yuki at my shop!" And before Yuki could hit him or my parents could protest I was whisked away to the mysterious shop of Ayame. Somehow Tohru and Yuki also were there when we arrived. Yuki looked very unhappy. We all stood out side for a moment,

"Welcome-" Ayame started only to have Yuki complete the task he'd failed to in the store,

WHACK!

"You idiot! Don't just drag people to wherever you want!" he yelled.

"Uh, yeah, not that I don't want to see your store but I only met you about four minutes ago and I couldn't even say goodbye to my parents, let alone get their permission to come here." I pointed out. But he only said airily,

"If I could get all those boys out of trouble when I was student council president then I can get you out of any trouble I put you in today."

"That was Hatori not you." Yuki contradicted but Ayame seemed not to hear this and simply went on,

"Before we deal with this predicament I must show you my shop and Mine!" And with that he dragged me into his shop. I needed to stop this habit of getting dragged by energetic Sohmas; it was starting to take a toll on my arm.

The subject of my arm was soon forgotten when I saw the inside of the shop. It was full of girls clothing! More specifically dresses! To be even more specific there were maid outfits, evening dresses, what looked like wedding dresses, church dresses, spring dresses, party dresses, and more! All I could do was look at them all and wonder why he sold all of this. Then it occurred to me,

"Do make all these?"

"Every one!" He affirmed proudly. I was wide eyed. Then I realized another thing,

"Why are there so many maid outfits and stuff like that?"

"They are in high demand." He explained cheerfully.

"Do that many maids wear these? Are there that many maids?" I wondered.

"Oh maids didn't order those." This revelation was also said with cheer. I was just more shocked but before I could say anymore a girl wearing one the maid outfits that startled me so came rushing toward us.

"Hello Ayame-kun. Oh and there's Yuki too, and Tohru, and who is this?"

"This is Yuki's friend, Anato."

"Oh she's Yuki's friend?"

"Um, yeah Momiji's in my homeroom and he introduced us" I said slowly or at least it seemed so compared to their fast pace. I was actually amazed that they gave me any chance to say a word, Yuki and Tohru didn't get one.

"Oh good, very good!" Ayame rejoiced as Mine looked me over. Suddenly her eyes gleamed dangerously.

"Oh, well aren't you the cutest little thing!" she said in a crazed kind of way. Despite this crazedness (it's a word now) I was still bashful and shy about being complimented. I blushed and shuffled my feet and said,

"I don't know about that." At this she seemed to have crossed some sort of internal barrier and grabbed me. Turned out I had to fear more than just energetic Sohmas, I had to fear energetic people in general. She dragged me to a dressing room, cheering,

"I know just the thing for you to wear! Oh but that one would look great too, and that one, it's probably best to just try them all on." She said the last part more to herself then to me but still loudly. With me still being dragged behind. She dragged me to a dressing room and as she had me try on practically everything in the store, she told me all about Yuki and Ayame's relationship, I found is sad but somewhat comical. Then at last she found the dress that was perfect. And when I say perfect I mean perfect. I wanted to buy this dress no matter how expensive it was. It was short, blue, and strapless. It puffed at the waist and was longer in the back then it was in the front. It had long gloves that were the same color as the dress and went from wrist to mid bicep. Other accessories that went with it were a blue choker and a big blue bow that went in my hair. I felt like I could have worn it for a dance recital or to a party. I loved it. However I wanted everyone else's opinions too so I went back out to the main room with Mine. When I came out Yuki and Ayame actually stopped mid-argument, or rather Yuki stopped yelling at Ayame, just to look at me. Ayame saw me, and he immediately started to fawn over me and Mine's ability to choose dresses.

"Oh Ana-chan you look spectacular! Mine you made an amazing choice that dress suits her perfectly! And Ana-chan you wear it so wonderfully! Oh it's perfect!"

"Thank you! I love this dress so much!" I said blushing.

"You really look amazing Ana-chan!" Tohru said.

"You're beautiful." Yuki confirmed. I was about to stutter more thankful replies when suddenly and quite unexpectedly my parents burst into the store! They didn't look at me much; instead they saw my face, making sure I was there, then immediately looked at Ayame. I felt sorry for him. They started yelling and screaming at him saying all the things parents say to someone who kidnaps their daughter right in front of their eyes. Yuki was right that Ayame wasn't able to get out of trouble. My parents finished their yelling, grabbed me, I added them to my list of people to avoid getting grabbed by, and stormed out of the store. While I was still wearing the dress. They were halfway through explaining how someone in the grocery store had known where Ayame's shop was when they noticed what I was wearing. They froze staring at me for a while. I waited for the verdict anxiously. The first thing that mom said was,

"Anato, you look amazing in that dress but-" I dreaded the 'but' and my dad continued,

"But why are you wearing it? Did it come from that shop?" Plus several more questions. I answered all their questions and explained anything else that needed to be explained. Having heard the whole situation they turned and went back into the shop. They walked in the door and found everyone standing right where they had been when we left. My parents stared at Ayame, Mine, Yuki, and Tohru. Ayame, Mine, Yuki, and Tohru stared at my parents. There was silence for what seemed like a long time. Then when I couldn't take it anymore I said,

"So I came back so I could get my clothes back and figure out what to do with the dress. I kind of want to keep it." And so conversation became normal again. Ayame and my parents talked and came to some sort of understanding. Then they talked about the dress and it was decided that I could keep it. I was thrilled. Then we all said good-bye because it was getting late. When we got home I asked my parents,

"So which to you prefer: Story time or family time?" They laughed.

"Well that's a tough one." My dad said.

"Yes because story time is much safer." My mom continued dad's thought.

"But family time is defiantly more interesting." My dad finished for her. And after that rather long day we all said good night and went to bed.

A/N- There it is! If you want a picture of the dress go to Quizilla and search Finding a Home with a Rabbit and my story should come up. I have the same user name on both websites so that should make it somewhat easier to find. Anyway I really enjoyed writing this chapter I hope you enjoyed reading it. Review and rate to tell me. :)


	7. Chapter 7

WHACK!

"Leave her alone!" Yuki and Kyo yelled at Ayame who was struggling to get off the floor.

"I just wanted to tell her the story about the time I saved all those-"

"I thought we already established that it was Hatori who got you all out of trouble." Yuki interrupted.

"Why are you even here?" Kyo grumbled.

"So I can get to know Ana-chan better!" Ayame replied brightly.

How he knew that I would be at Shigure's house today, I'm not sure, although I was starting to think that he might have planned something with Momiji who had dragged me here after school. Apparently everyone else had also reached this conclusion and started to look from one to the other of the pair in question suspiciously. 'Everyone' consisted of Yuki, Kyo, Tohru, Haru, and Shigure. Well actually Haru looked indifferent (he would probably be in on it if such a conspiracy existed), Shigure looked unsurprised, and Tohru sweat-dropped, so only Yuki and Kyo actually looked suspicious. Rather than suspicious I was more amused by this assumed revelation. Finally Yuki voiced everyone's thoughts and asked,

"Did Momiji tell you that he was going to bring Anato here?"

"He mentioned it."

"And then you decided to use this knowledge as an excuse to come here and bother us?"

"I wanted to see Ana-chan, Tohru, and you, my little brother!" I felt like the only one he really wanted to see was Yuki who said,

"Well you're not welcome here. Get out."

"Awwww, don't be like that, Yuki."

While the siblings argued Tohru had been making rice-balls and at this point they were done. She brought me one of them but before I could take it Ayame grabbed it and said,

"Why thank you, Tohru, for this delicious rice-ball." And he would have eaten it too if Yuki hadn't

WHACKed him and caught the rice-ball out of the air with skill. He handed it to me, and halfway between a sweat drop and laughter I took it and said,

"Um... thanks, Yuki."

"You're welcome Miss Yuhiko." I raised my eyebrow at his return to the formal name but didn't say anything assuming it was just to do with his mood.

Tohru went around the group, giving each person a rice-ball. When Momiji got his rice-ball he jumped up and down saying,

"Thank you, Tohru, thank you so much!"

I smiled. Momiji was just so cute! I feel so lucky to have him as my best friend. I find I have to force myself not to hug him constantly. I'm glad that I found out about the secret here at Shigure's house because otherwise I would have given in to temptation one day and hugged him, most likely at school, right in front of all our classmates. I know that if that happened then I would probably not be allowed to know about them. But then I would probably do it again so either they would let me know or they would find some way to isolate me from him, or something like that.

While I was obsessing over Momiji and rambling on in my head, Yuki and Ayame continued their... conversation. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Ayame yelled,

"Oh Yuki! Our bond is getting stronger!"

He jumped forward trying to hug Yuki but the younger sibling just stepped out of the way, their bond was obviously no stronger than it had been before. Of course Ayame kept going because of a funny thing called momentum. And I happened to be standing right behind Yuki. There was a great collision and a poof of dust. If I hadn't been preoccupied trying to figure out what in the world was going on I would have been exited to see what animal was hiding in said poof of dust. I have been wondering what animal of the zodiac Ayame was. When the cloud dispersed I saw a snake lying in a pool of Ayame's clothes. For a moment we all just looked at Ayame. Then Momiji broke the silence,

"Ana-chan! Ana-chan! Guess what animal Ayame is!"

I snickered .

"Hmm... it couldn't be the snake, could it?" I asked in mock deliberation.

"Yay! You got it right!" Momiji cheered.

"Of course she got it right, you idiot." Kyo grumbled. However this comment was largely ignored and there was cry of, "Wonderful job, Ana-chan!" issued from the snake on the floor. I noticed that Yuki seemed to have vanished and guessed that he had finally gotten sick of Ayame and retreated to his room or gone on a walk or escaped by some other means. If I had known about his 'Secret Base' then I would have correctly guessed that he went there. Deciding to alert the others to his absence I asked,

"Does anyone know where Yuki went?" I immediately regretted it, thinking that Yuki deserved some peace. It was too late for peace however because when Ayame discovered that his brother was gone he formed a search party and was halfway through assigning places to look for the poor boy when Tohru seemed to make the decision to tell them him that Yuki was probably working on his 'Secret Base.'

"A Secret Base! My dear Yuki is so dramatic! Where would this fortress be found, Tohru?" Right at that moment there was a great poof and there stood a naked Ayame. I had almost forgotten that he was a snake and I was shocked at the nakedness and completely embarrassed. On the night I found out about the family curse, I had fainted before anyone turned back and Shigure had forgotten to tell me that that they change back naked, but I got the message now.

Ayame got dressed and eagerly started interrogating Tohru about Yuki's 'Secret Base' again. She explained how it was just a garden and how she knew where it was and of course Ayame insisted that she show him. I was also curious so I decided to come along as well. Upon learning this Momiji suddenly was also very interested and so he wanted to come too. Haru, who I noticed had been very quiet today, said that he was also curious. Shigure looked like he was going to the movies, he was even holding a bag of popcorn, when he said that he'd tag along and Kyo was somehow dragged into going too.

And so our large party of seven set off on an adventure that I felt needed the titled, _Tohru Honda Leads the Way to Yuki's Secret Base!_ Or something like that. When we got there is was rather anticlimactic. All it was, was a simple garden which Yuki was watering. It was a peaceful scene for a second but then Yuki looked up. When he saw the huge group of intruders, at first he just froze and stared at us. However he wasn't given much time to do this because soon after arriving, Ayame started ranting and raving. Yuki, who was furious, violently put a stop to this ranting and the chaos that was the Sohma family ensued. Overall it was a good day.

A/N- I don't know whether Ayame knew about Yuki's secret base or not but in my story he didn't. Also I'm begging you to review! Please! I'm begging you!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N- Hello everyone. *takes a deep breath* I'm sooooooo sorry it's taken me so long to update my story. I've been busy with end of school year and recital stuff so I haven't had the chance. But it's just been sooooooo long. What two weeks? It's really bad! I'm sorry. Just to let you know this next week is the last week of school for me and their taking laptops they gave us back and keeping them during the summer. So I'll have to use my crappy old computer which will slow me down. One thing that motivated me to write this sooner rather than later was seeing one the reviews asking me to. If you want me to update faster than review! Oh and I have the lyrics to Best Friend by Toy Box in here and if there is anything wrong with them it's because I paused and unpaused it to remember the words plus it's a duet. Enjoy the chapter!

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><p>"<em>You know what? Just because I feel like it, I'm going to go outside, pick an English song on my ipod, and sing it at the top of my lungs.<em>" I thought.

It was Friday and I had come home form school. I was feeling sort of random and kinda bored so I got my ipod and headphones and went outside. In the front yard I put the headphones in my ears and looked through my American music. I thought about choosing one like Blah Blah Blah by Kesha or Love Game by Lady Ga Ga since no one would be able to understand them but decided against it. Instead I choose Best Friend by Toy-Box. I pressed play and started to sing. (A/N- Hoo is pronounced as Who, i didn't know how else to put it)

(guy) Hoo Ha Hoo Ha

(girl) Na na na na na na na na na na na na

(girl) Na na na na na na na na na na na na

(girl) Have you ever been in love?

(girl) He's my best friend, best of all best friends, do you have a best friend too?

(girl) He tickles in my tummy, he's so yummy yummy, hey you should get a best friend too.

(guy) Hoo Ha Hoo Ha

(girl) Hello baby can I see you smile?

(guy) I'm going to a party and it's gonna be wild

(girl) OK. Can I come? I am sitting alone.

(guy) No, friends are never alone.

(girl) That's right!

As I sang I was either acting like I was singing on a stage or was dancing wildly along to it. I knew people would think I was crazy but I didn't care. Every once in a while I do things like this just to get a break from acting so shy all the time. I sang on, loudly,

(girl) Maybe some pretty girls are in world,

(girl) Excuse me, I could also be your girl or lady, everyone is making fun

(girl) Na na na na na na na na na na na

(girl) He's my best friend, best of all best friends, do you have a best friend too?

(girl) He tickles in my tummy, he's so yummy yummy, hey you should get a best friend too.

(guy) A best friend

(guy) Hoo Ha Hoo Ha

(guy) Hoo Ha Hoo Ha

(girl) Na na na na na na na na na na na

(guy) Hoo Ha Hoo Ha

I started to get really into the 'characters' of the song and became oblivious to everything around me, which is why I failed to see the cute, child-like, blonde boy standing in front of the yard looking at me unsure what to do. He was having trouble deciding whether he should laugh or be worried, hoping that I would see him and explain so that he wouldn't have to interrupt me. Unfortunately I did not and just sang more enthusiastically.

(girl) Aloha baby let's go to the beach

(guy) Yeah, girls in bikini are waiting for me

(girl) Ah ha

(girl) But I was hoping for a summer romance

(guy) So why would take the chance?

(girl) OK

And Momiji still stood there, fascinated. He was now wondering what song I was singing. And I remained ignorant. Then I got to my favorite line in the song, it's really quite a random line but I am person. I shouted the line,

(guy) Let's get this party on! Hit me with laser-gun!

And finally I turned and saw Momiji standing staring at me. I froze, and blushed. It would have been an awkward silence except the song was still blasting in my ears. I paused it.

"Um- hi, Momiji. What are you doing here?"

"A moment ago I was watching you sing a song in another language while dancing." He answered unhelpfully.

"Yeah I knew that I was wondering why you came." I choose my word more carefully.

"I wanted to see you, Ana-chan!" He said brightening up. He looked so cute when he said it, it was all I could do to not squeeze him to death in a giant bear hug. Instead I blushed and smiled broadly. Then I remembered what he just caught me doing. Not that I thought there was anything wrong with dancing and singing it was just embarrassing and I didn't want him to think I was weird or something. I mean I am weird and I know it and I don't want to hide anything from him, I just don't want him to think of me negatively because of it. I had been planning on revealing my weirdness in a less embarrassing way. Then I caught myself, _Whoa, I'm way over-thinking this. Ah man, I thought I broke that habit last year._ Coming out of my reverie I said,

"Well you saw me all right, singing a song in a foreign language at top of my lungs."

"He he, You were cute!"

I sighed in relief and asked, "It wasn't weird?" Already knowing the answer,

"It was a bit weird but in a good way. You looked happy." Before I could be all bashful and thankful he grabbed my arm and stated to drag me to an unknown destination, which was quickly revealed when he said cheerfully,

"Come on Ana-chan! We're going to Shigure's house!"

Playfully I asked, "What if I don't want to go?"

"Then I'll just kidnap you!" He replied, again cheerfully.

"My best friend, a kidnapper, who'd a thunk." I teased as I shook my head. He laughed, the rest of journey was much the same. When we got there, there was something in the atmosphere that told me that this would be an eventful visit. Sure enough before we even opened the door we heard a loud

CRASH!

And an orange haired blur smashed through the door and in the doorway was a brown haired girl wearing a green dress. She looked like she was about to kill somebody and thinking of the glimpse of orange hair I guessed the victim was Kyo. Although what he could have done to made anyone so angry was beyond me. The girl charged toward the unfortunate boy and screamed something that sounded very much like,

"BECAUSE I MISSED YOU! IF YOU'D CALLED ME ONCE IN A WHILE THEN I WOULDN'T WORRY! I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU SINCE VALENTINE'S DAY!" Which made no sense so I assumed I misheard until Kyo shouted back,

"I KNOW AND I DON'T WANT TO CALL YOU!" he was trying to get away from her as she was now punching him everywhere she could. Then suddenly she stopped and said in distress,

"Kyo! You're all beat up again! Who did this?" to which Shigure, who had appeared in the doorway, answered,

"The same person as last time, you."

Momiji suddenly joined the conversation or argument or whatever and said,

"Ha ha, Kyo got beat up by Kagura!"

"Shut up, you stupid rabbit! What are you even doing here?" was accompanied by a-

WHACK

-and predictably Momiji started crying,

"Waaaaah! Kyo's hitting me!"

I chuckled and chided him gently,

"Momiji, Kyo's always hitting you, and, Kyo, the best answer to your question that I can give is that Momiji came to my house today, said he came to see me, then grabbed me and dragged me here. Big surprise." I turned to the girl Momiji had called Kagura, now that she wasn't raging I saw that she was actually pretty cute, "Um hi I'm Anato Yuhiko but you can just call me Ana-chan. Who are you?" pause, "and why were you hitting Kyo?"

"Oh, hi I'm Kagura Sohma and I'm going to marry Kyo." she said suddenly seeming shy and quite.

"No! You're not!" Kyo yelled which cause Kagura to become mad again and she resumed beating up Kyo till she noticed and was concerned again. Completely confused I looked around at Momiji or Shigure silently asking for an explanation. It was Shigure who then said,

"This is how Kagura shows her affection."

I looked at her as she beat up Kyo.

"She really likes Kyo." I observed.

In the house Momiji and I said hi to Yuki and Tohru, Tohru got to bandaging up Kyo, and I got to know Kagura more. We soon became good friends, we were both shy, most of the time, and I admired her determination to marry Kyo, although I saw that it was a lost cause. Also I was happy that there was a member of the Sohma family that I could hug! I love hugs.

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><p>AN- hey sorry it's so short and there's so little of Kagura. The next chapter will be updated soon and Kagura will be all over it! I'll also try to make it long. This chapter is really just to assure the readers I have that I am still alive. Just being a bad author. Sorry! Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	9. Chapter 9

"Kyo! I LOVE YOU!" A voice called growing steadily louder and angry sounding as it spoke. I turned to see Kagura running toward us as angry clouds of love surrounded her. She pounced on a horrified Kyo and started crushing him in what might have been meant to be a hug. I tried to stifle my laughter because Kyo was suffocating but Kagura was just too funny. Using the little air he had in his lungs Kyo wheezed,

"Can't breath."

She let go of him, then turned to me and greeted cheerfully,

"Ana-chan!"

"Kagura-chan!" I greeted cheerfully in return and we hugged each other. It was a pleasant hug, no crushing or suffocating. Kyo noticed.

"Why do hug her like that and crush me!" He yelled at her.

"Well Ana-chan hugs back so I don't have to make up for her. I have to hug you twice as hard so that there's as much love in our hugs as there is when I hug Ana-chan.!" She replied brightly.

"And also Ana-chan is so delicate that you just can't squeeze her too hard." Momiji added also brightly.

"Why are all you people over here anyway?" Kyo grumbled.

We were at Shigure's house after school. Surprisingly instead of dragging me here, Momiji actually asked me if I wanted to come. I didn't have anything planned for tonight so I decided to come and I'm glad I did because Kagura is here and I get to see her again! Why she is here, I'm not so sure.

"I wanted to see you, Kyo." Kagura explained shyly, "And I get to see Ana-chan too! Why did you come here Ana-chan?" She asked, in a good mood.

"Momiji invited me. He said that it would be okay. I'm not a bother am I?" I asked worried about the annoyed expression on Kyo's face. Before Kyo could respond however Shigure explained for him,

"No, he's not annoyed with you, he's annoyed with Momiji."

"Well when you go inviting people to other people's houses without asking them-" Kyo started angrily,

"But this isn't your house Kyo." Momiji interrupted.

"Yeah, well did you know about it?" Kyo bristled directing his question at Shigure.

"Well no, but I don't have any problems with it." The owner of the house said calmly.

"Well you should." Kyo said and would have walked grumpily from the room except Kagura was suddenly clinging to his arm, his cat ears popped up and his hair stood on end and did a little dance of agitation.

"Kyo, don't leave me, please."

"What do you need me for when you've got your new best friend? Get off me!" He somehow managed to break free and escaped, probably to the roof. After he left Kagura seemed to deflate looking shy and sad.

"Hey, Kagura, why don't we play a game!" I asked brightly trying to cheer her up. She looked at me and asked quietly,

"What kind of game?" That got me. I hadn't planned that far.

"Oh oh let's play truth or dare!" Momiji suggested.

"How bout just truth." She said brightening a bit.

"Alright." I smiled at her, "I'll go first. So Kagura have you ever danced around your room to your favorite song, singing or wishing you could sing it at the top of your voice?"

"I did once but the mirror broke."

"Ha ha, I can see that." I laughed.

"My turn." Kagura said, "Momiji, if you had to kiss one of the members of the zodiac, who would it be?"

"Um... Hatori."

"Really?" Kagura asked.

"Yep."

"Hatori... is he Ayame and Shigure's friend?" I wondered aloud.

"Yep, and he's the family doctor." Momiji informed me.

"Huh, I hope I meet him one day, well Momiji it's your turn."

"Hm, Ana-chan, have you every seriously hurt yourself while dancing?"

"Well... there the time I got a mild concussion because I came down out of a lift wrong."

"What? Who dropped you?" Momiji demanded sounding surprisingly angry.

"Oh no one dropped me really, what we were doing was there were four people who made a ladder out of their backs and I was supposed to run across them but I stepped wrong and I fell, there was someone holding my hand as I ran but I'd never fallen before so they weren't ready for it. It's fine though I got to perform the piece with everyone and they didn't have to change the dance at all. It all ended well." Momiji still looked worried.

As the game progressed Kagura became happy again and we ended up laughing and joking a lot. The game then went from 'truth or dare' to 'talk about Kyo.' Eventually Momiji left to go to the bathroom. After he left Kagura decided to ask me the infamous question that she had been tactful enough not to ask earlier,

"Who do you like Ana-chan?" I blushed and became shy again.

"Oh, I don't know. I don't think there's anyone in particular." I mumbled.

"That's not true! What about Momiji? You two are really close." Kagura persisted.

"We're- we're friends, close friends." I insisted weakly blushing more. Kagura saw this and teased,

"You like him!"

"As a friend."

She just smiled knowingly as Momiji walked in.

"What are you blushing about Ana-chan?" He asked.

"Oh nothing, your turn."

"Oh so we're playing the game again." Momiji questioned.

"Yep."

We played some more and then mom called and I had to go home. That night I thought about Momiji before going to sleep. He was my best friend of course I liked him, as a friend, right? I thought about his always cheerful attitude, his smile, his laugh, the way he always know how to make me smile. I loved those things about him, but still he was just a friend, right? Yeah, I'm just over-thinking this, that's all. Still thinking about Momiji I drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Momiji's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Ana-chan left Kagura and I decided that it was time for us to leave as well. We walked together because we were both headed to the same destination. We talked an she kept changing the subject back to Kyo. She's so funny; I can't think of her as annoying after the way Tohru told me about what she thought about her love for Kyo; or after she's become such good friends with Ana-chan. I can't seem to not like anyone she likes. I wonder why that is. Kagura suddenly changed the topic to something other than Kyo, bringing me back to my senses.

"Can I ask you one last Truth question?" She asked, "You have to answer truthfully."

"I would love it! That would be great!" I happily accepted, glad of any break from the talk of Kyo.

"Who do you like?"

"W- What?" This is the one question I wasn't expecting.

"Who do you like?" She asked again.

"Well, well I like you, Tohru, Yuki, Haru, Kyo, Shigure, Ana-chan, Hatori-"

"No not like that. Who do you have a crush on?" She interrupted me. I smiled a small smile,

"Well, I'm not sure, but I think I like Ana-chan. I don't know, I've never liked anyone before. And I don't know how Ana-chan feels about me anyway." I said.

"She's in denial but she likes you. You two will make such a cute couple!" Kagura squealed.

"What? How do you know that?" I asked anxiously.

"Because when you were in the bathroom I asked her and she said she liked as a friend while blushing up a storm and being in obvious denial."

"I-"

"You should confess to her." Kagura told me.

At that point we were at the main house so we went our different ways. I got home and got ready for bed. When I was in bed I thought about Ana-chan. I had always thought of her as my best friend, I knew I loved her, but as a friend. But lately I've caught myself just looking at her from across the room in class when I should be working, or daydreaming about her when I'm alone. I thought about how much I loved her blush and her cute shyness. I thought about how mad I was when I heard someone dropped her. Do friends think about each other like that? I don't think so. I think I have a crush on her. Wait a crush? That doesn't seem to be the right word, too trivial, too changeable. I think I love her. Should I confess? Is she really just in denial like Kagura said? What if she says no? Any relationship with her is better than none. We can always just be friends. I think I'll confess... soon. What should I say? I fell asleep thinking of ways to confess to her.

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><p>AN- Hello! I'm sorry about the rushed ending to the last chapter, I just wanted to post something since it had been so long and it was late at night. I hope this chapter made up for it though! After all Momiji did decide that he would CONFESS! I didn't actually plan it that way, the only other option I could think of was him also being in denial but that seemed out of character so there it is! Also tomorrow I have to give this computer back to the school, so they can completely clear it of everything on here, update all the programs, and give it back to us next school year. I have a computer here at home but it's ancient and it's a PC and the school computer is a Mac so I can't transfer anything but word documents! Anyway I apologize if my writing is at all affected. Also I'm going on vacation next week so there won't be any new chapters. Well there's my news report. Sorry for boring you.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hmmm... they have a ballet studio, no surprises there, there's a traditional Japanese dance company, mmm... and- oh, a Japanese belly dancing class? That sounds fun, I'll have to do that, and of coarse I have to take ballet to show Momiji, and everyone else." I sighed and leaned back in my chair. It was Saturday and only a few days after we played truth with Kagura. Ever since then Momiji has seemed preoccupied with something. He zones out in the middle of a conversation and seems deep in thought during class but when the teacher calls on him has no idea what they had been talking about. He also keeps glancing at me and I don't know why, and there were a couple of times when he seemed like he was about to tell me something important but didn't. He would go,

"Ana-chan, I- I have something I want to tell you," then take a deep breath as if gathering his courage but then he would chicken out and say something like,

"I really liked your essay," or something like that. I know that's not what he was trying to say but I'm not going to say anything. He'll tell me when he's ready. That doesn't mean I don't wonder about it sometimes, every once in a while, like at dinner, or when I'm supposed to be doing my homework, or sleep, or find a place to take dance class... alright I think about it a lot, but that's partly because I like him, as in love him, I've admitted that to myself, and I'm worried about him, but the point is I won't push him, even though I really want to know what could be so important. Instead I'll distract myself with finding a place to take dance lessons, which brings me back to Japanese belly dancing.

"Mom!" I called, "I found somewhere to dance!"

"Where?" she called back.

"Come here!" A few seconds of silence followed then I heard her footsteps heading toward my door which opened a moment later.

"So what did you find?" Mom asked, coming over to look at my computer.

"Well there's a ballet studio a little further in town and down the street from there I can take Japanese belly dancing lessons." I told her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Belly dancing? Is that the only type of _Japanese_ dancing you could find?" She asked.

"Well, there is a traditional Japanese dance company but first of all it's company, meaning I'd have to audition to get in, these are just lessons, and second of all I'm not sure I want to do traditional Japanese dance. It's a lot of peaking out over your fan," I peaked over an imaginary fan as I spoke, "and taking really small steps, " I continue as I walk around with each step only one inch big, "and gesturing, " I moved one arm (still holding my imaginary fan) as if in welcome, "and hiding behind your fan again, " I hid my face behind my imaginary fan again, " but belly dancing is well, belly dancing." I explained. Mom chuckled and said,

"Alright, ballet and belly dancing it is."

"Thanks mom!" I said happily and hugged her. Just then the doorbell rang.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Momiji's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking at Ana-chan's house I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. I'm going to do it, I'm going to confess, for real this time. I've already almost confessed twice but I chickened out both times. The only thing I've thought about all week is confessing. How to do it, when to do it, where to do it, what to say, and what to do if she says no. It wouldn't ruin our friendship if she did would it? I knew I could go back to being friends if I absolutely had to, well I could pretend; but what about Ana-chan, could she act the same around me if she knew my feelings? I hoped so, if that happened; most of my hoping was concentrated on her saying yes, which brings me back to how to confess. I've been coming up with all the possible ways that I can think of ever since I decided to confess. Should I be casual? Sincere? Blunt? Should we be alone? In a crowd? At the park? In school? I could've asked for advice but I don't know who I would ask and I want to work this out for myself. In the end I decided to come over during the weekend, take her for a walk in the park, and confess to her there. It wasn't very special considering how long I've been thinking about it but I'd been mostly delayed by nerves. And so, here I am waiting for someone to come and get the door. From the inside of the house I heard someone call,

"I got it," and then footsteps coming toward the door. Moments later the door was opened by a middle aged man who could only be her father. I was extremely nervous but I put a happy smile on my face and said,

"Hi, I'm Momiji Sohma and I came here to see Ana-chan, is she home?" I asked seemingly cheerful while I was really about to have a nervous breakdown. Her dad smiled,

"Ah yes, she's talked about you a lot. Come on in. He moved aside to let me in as someone from another room called,

"Who is it, honey?" I assumed that was Ana-chan's mother.

"It's Anato's friend Momiji!" Her dad called back.

"Momiji?" There was Ana-chan's voice. She appeared from behind a door a moment later.

"Momiji!" She yelled happily, "What are you doing here? This is such a surprise!"

"I came here to see you!" I answered _sounding_ just as happy. 'And to confess to you.' I thought nervously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Anato's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Momiji's here! I'm so happy! He can meet my parents; I can show him my room! I can't remember the last time I had a friend over at my house. This is so exiting! Well first things first,

"Mom, dad, this is my best friend, " and crush, "Momiji Sohma! Momiji, these are my parental units!" I introduced them smiling.

"It's great to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Yuhiko! It's just great!" Momiji said smiling. Also smiling my mom said,

"It's great to meet you too, and call me Emiko-san."

"And me Hiraku-san." dad added.

"Sure Emiko-san and Hiraku-san! Ana-chan, let's go for a walk!" Momiji said excitedly, if abruptly.

"That's a great idea! I can go, right?" I asked my parents.

"You can go as long as you come back in time for lunch. Momiji, you will stay for lunch, won't you?" Mom asked. There was a half-second long pause then Momiji said,

"I would love that! I would just love it!"

"Yes!" I celebrated, as we walked out the door. As we walked I talked about finding the ballet studio and belly dancing lessons. At first he seemed genuinely interested but as we walked further he seemed to get more distant, more and more nervous and I knew that he was finally going to tell me whatever it was that was so important. I didn't ask him about it because I wasn't pushing him, remember? At last we got to the park and sat down on a bench. We were both quiet for a moment then Momiji started to speak,

"Ana-chan?"

"Yes."

"I- I've been meaning to tell you something for, well, for the whole week..." he started.

"What?" I asked eagerly. He gulped,

"I-" he took a deep breath, "I liked you from the first time I saw you, and you've been my best friend, the best friend I've ever had, but..." he paused,

"but I thought you should know that I want to be... more than friends. Anato, I'm in love with you, I love the sound of your voice, your shyness, the way you smile, and the way you dance, and I was wondering if... you loved me back, and if you wanted to go out with me?" I stared at him for a second, taking in what he had said. He just asked me out, more than that he said he loved me. He loves me! He wants me to be his girlfriend! I'm going to be his girlfriend! He's my boyfriend! Wait, not yet, first I have to say,

"Yes." I breathed, interrupting him; wait I interrupted him? What was he saying? It sounded something along the lines of,

"-should've known you wouldn't want-what?"

"Yes!" I repeated louder this time, "Yes, yes, and yes again! Momiji, I love you too." Momiji brightened considerably and asked,

"Really?"

"Of course! I love the way you're always so cheerful and happy, and I love you eyes and it meant so much to me when you just took me in and accepted me and became my friend the moment you met me." I said sincerely then I became excited,

"Oh my God! Momiji! Come on! Let's go tell my parents!" I squealed and it was my turn to drag him somewhere. Ha! Of course after I assured him that the news that their daughter was his girlfriend would not make them hate him, he was as enthusiastic as I was. In fact he was his old enthusiastic self! I had Momiji back, and all to myself! Oh life was good! Life was very very good! When we got home we burst through the door then raced to the living room where my parents were. We screeched to a halt and I sang,

"Guess what!" We were both bubbling with happiness. Looking at us surprised dad suggested,

"Someone just gave you the winning lottery ticket?"

"Nope!" was my cheerful reply.

"Then what?" Mom asked, looking amused.

"Momiji confessed and asked me out!" I screamed.

"And she said yes!" Momiji added in a scream.

"Congratulations!" My parental units said heartily.

"Alright, Momiji, let's go to my room!" And we were off before mom could remind us about lunch. I was so happy! I couldn't wait to tell every person I knew. In my room we started talking about how he had acted weird all week, how I had been worried that something was wrong, about when we realized that we loved the other person, then about other things like my dance schedule (sp) and how that would mean he couldn't drag me places on the day I had dance, and how I was going to ask my new instructors about being part of a performance or having a solo to show Momiji, and all my friends. When he was leaving, as soon as my parents weren't watching I hugged him like crazy and then waited for him to turn back so he could go home. That night as I slept I dreamed about bunnies and boyfriends and belly dancing.

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><p>AN- I'm sooooooooooooooooo sorry I havn't updated in so long! I've just been busy with chores and camps and summer reading that my mom bugs me about. I feel really guilty. I hope that with Momiji and Anato confessing and what not that this chapter made it up to you at least a little bit. I personally really love this chapter. Also I'm going to Texas next week because my brother, who does gymnastics, is going to Nationals and this year it's in Texas, and I don't dare bring this dinosaur of a computer because it might die from being moved, so I won't be updating next week.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I'M SO SORRY FOR HAVING THAT WEIRD VERSION POSTED FOR SO LONG! I got my school computer back and I just couldn't find the patience to deal with the dinosaur that I call my own laptop. I've revised this and will be UPDATING soon! I know, shocking, but it's true. Again I apologize for my lack of updating and quality writing. I beg for forgiveness! Please enjoy this revised chapter. Oh and I'm not really sure about the rules of the game Old Maid, or at least the they play in the anime and manga so if I did something wrong I'm apologize. Another thing I apologize for is the lack of romance in the confession chapter, I can't remember whether or not I've already said that but I'm saying it now. I'm going to add some extra little romance things in this chapter to try and make up for it. Through writing this I have found that I'm not good at writing romance. You learn from your mistakes I guess.

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><p>"Ha! You're goin' down Yankee!" an orange haired Old Maid player declared confidently. To which said Yankee taunted,<p>

"I wouldn't be so sure orange-top."

"Did you two forget that I'm still playing as well?" a calm prince-like character interrupted them.

"How could I forget? This is the day I finally beat you at something!" Kyo yelled at Yuki then Uo said confidently,

"It doesn't matter, you're both gonna lose."

"Rather, you're all going to lose, to Ana-chan. We've played with her in homeroom and she wins every time." Haru interrupted.

"Yep!" Momiji confirmed, "Ana-chan is really good at this game." I blushed as Momiji complimented me. It was lunch time on the Monday after Momiji's confession and still only Momiji, my parents and I knew about it. Momiji would have told them sooner but I was a little nervous about tell them. My parents are one story but everyone else... not that I don't trust them or anything but I'm just nervous. I think Uo and Hana might have guessed though, thy keep looking at us when hold hands and look into each others eyes longer than usual. On another note, it's true, I really am good at Old Maid; one of my friends from South Korea had been obsessed with the game so I'd had my fair share of practice and practice make perfect. I was surprised Yuki was doing so well because this was apparently his first time playing, of course he had gotten all the good cards, but still... and needless to say I'd heard of the times when Kyo and Uo had played in the past so there was no surprise there. While I was amused by how they got so fired up it made for a long game and I wanted it to end because I felt like something important would happen then. On the other hand it had also made for a great opportunity to strategize, make moves without anyone noticing, take a secret lead, and set traps. Unfortunately, Haru had brought the end to that strategy so I decided to take the offensive. Meanwhile the other three players looked at me, a silent and all but forgotten part of the circle, as Uo said,

"I'd almost forgotten you were playing." I smiled at that,

"I know. That's why I can do this! Revolution!" A move that makes all the high cards they'd been getting low, in other words, useless. (A/N-at least I think so) There were cries of denial and soon after that the game was over. I won.

"Wow Ana-chan, I didn't know you had it in you to be that ruthless. It felt like those last few rounds just zoomed by." Uo commented sounding impressed. I smiled again.

"Yeah Ana-chan, you were amazing!" Momiji yelled ecstatically and I blushed again.

"Ahh thank you, Momiji." I replied in my usual bashful quiet way. As I looked him in the eye he continued,  
>"You're always amazing! Always!" I blushed even more and was about to give another bashful thank you when Hana interrupted, startling us,<p>

"You two seem closer than before."

"Yeah you do, it's like... like you're..." started Uo, as she looked at us.

"More open about your feelings for each other." Hana finished for her.

"Yeah that's it." Uo confirmed.

"What feelings?" Kyo asked bluntly.

"Our feelings of love!" Momiji told him, unable to contain himself.

"Love? What are you- wait you mean? What are you going out?" Kyo slowly put the pieces together.

"Yes! He confessed this weekend." I divulged, the secret was out anyway. Suddenly I was being hugged ferociously by Tohru.

"Oh, Ana-chan, I'm so happy for you and Momiji!" she said still hugging me. After I was free of the hug Uo came a ruffled my hair and said,

"Good for you kid." I got a chance to fix my hair as Hana gave a typical,

"I wish the both of you pleasant electrical waves in the future together."

"Congratulations." Was what Yuki and Haru said after looking surprised. Kyo however only said,

"Well good for you but I don't see what the big deal is, they're only going out, not getting married."

WHACK!

"There are two more people in the world who have found love and they happen to be our friends." Uo said menacingly. Kyo would have retaliated but Tohru suggested,

"Ana-chan, Momiji, you should come over after school today."

"That would be great." I told her.

"I would love that!" Momiji agreed as the bell rang. As we walked to our next class we held hands. We held hands as we walked to Shigure's house as well. We walked with Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo today so we all got there at the same time, and so we were all there and we all saw the two extra people in the house with Shigure at the same time, which resulted in quite a lot of noise. One of the people was Ayame which made me happy, I had missed Ayame and of course he was the reason and cause of much of the noise; the other was a stranger, to me at least. He was tall with black hair and looked to be around Shigure's and Ayame's age, he also looked very bored or maybe just indifferent. In any case, he wasn't one of causes of the noise. In fact he was completely silent as Ayame said,

"Oh, look it's Yuki and all his friends! You must have all come to see me and Oh look it's Ana-chan too..." and Shigure said,

"Well, well it looks like I've got a full house tonight." and Haru said,

"Hello Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori." and Momiji said,

"Hi Hatori. Hi Ayame." and Tohru said,

"Hatori, Ayame, I didn't know you were coming, are you staying for dinner..." and Kyo yelled,

"What are you two doing here, especially you?" as he pointed at Ayame and Yuki threatened,

"Get. Out. Now."

I remind you that all these things were being said at the same time so I could only understand bits and pieces, although I did hear the name Hatori a couple of times and assumed it was the name of the stranger. Of course the noise didn't stop when it seemed like it should have and just as I was about to yell at them all to shut up or find an object that would make a loud and noticeable noise when hit, the stranger Hatori stood up and said in a calm voice,

"Everyone calm down." and it somehow was heard over all the other voices and the room became quiet. I was impressed. If I wasn't so shy then I would have told him so but I am shy so I didn't say anything, instead when everyone was quiet Shigure said,

"Thank you Hatori-" and he would have said more if Hatori, who I still hadn't to be introduced to, interrupted him,

"I didn't do it for you, I did it because I was getting a headache." then sat down. I wanted to say something but I couldn't get the nerve, so I shifted my feet and nudged Momiji hoping he would understand. Luckily he did.

"Oh, Ana-chan, you haven't met Hatori yet have you?" I shook my head,

"Nope." I said as I realized that it had been a while since I had been this shy. I hadn't had time to be shy when I met Ayame and I had been too worried about Kyo when I had met Kagura, as I had neither distraction my shyness had free reign. Momiji introduced us,

"Ana-chan this is Hatori Sohma, Hatori, this is Ana-chan."

"Hello, it's nice to meet you Hatori." I said.

"It's nice to meet you too." He replied. I got the feeling that he was thinking something along the lines of, 'At least you're not loud and obnoxious.' I was fine with that as there were several people who fit that description that he could be thinking of. Actually, now that I thought of one of those loud people, namely Ayame, I was surprised that he had actually listened to Hatori along with everyone else. From what I knew of him he obeyed no one.

"Ha-kun, isn't this wonderful? Yuki has made another friend! Don't you like her?" said snake ranted.

"Yes, she's one of the few quiet people I know." Hatori told him pointedly and to my further surprise he seemed to be a little quieter. It seemed that Ayame listened to Hatori; I made a mental note for future reference. Then Kyo grumbled,  
>"Why are you two even here?"<p>

"I wanted to come and see Yuki and I asked Ha-kun to come." Ayame started.

"It was my day off and he wouldn't stop bothering me." Hatori finished. As the afternoon wore on and I spent more time with Hatori, he slowly grew on me, by the time I had to go home I liked him and thought he was funny; a little dark, but not cruel, unless it was Ayame or Shigure. I wondered what his past was like. I had only just met the man so I didn't have the courage to ask him hardly anything but I would like to try in the future. Of course, being me I had zoned out and started thinking of all these things while still at Shigure's house and so my thoughts were interrupted when Momiji squeezed my hand and said,

"Ana-chan, show Hatori your dancing!" I smiled,

"No, Momiji I already told you that you're going to have to come to a performance to see me dancing," I told him gently then continued at the sad look on his face, "but don't worry my first belly dancing class it tomorrow and my first ballet class, here, is on Wednesday. I'll make sure that I'm a part of the first performance that I can be in." I assured him and he smiled some.

"Alright, I guess I can wait." He said rather softly.

"Hey, get a room if you're gonna be all lovey dovey." Kyo interrupted and we both blushed. Finally Hatori seemed to have had enough and spoke calmly,

"Come on, Ayame, let's go." And I was still surprised to see Ayame agree so easily to leave his precious Yuki but I also had to leave and so did Momiji and Haru. We all left and I went my separate way to go home, when I got there I went to sleep thinking about Hatori, and looking forward to my belly dancing lesson the next day.

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><p>AN- Having just read and revised the old post I have to say I'm appalled to have posted it on here in that state and apologized again but I feel much better after fixing it. :) Anyway I will be updating again now although I am busy this school year, I mean even though I had strep during volleyball try outs and couldn't make the team, I am doing AP US History which gives a lot of homework and I'm also doing dance four days a week this year plus I'm learning to drive now so one of those reasons is probably why I update late in the future. Just giving you guys a heads up. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter this time and please REVIEW! I just had to remind you because it's been so long (I'm sorry!) you've probably forgotten. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW It would mean faster updates.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N-Hello! I'm back! In case you haven't already, I changed the last chapter and made it better so before you read this one go back! You've read it? Good. Now I'm just going to say that I have never attended a belly-dancing class in my life so don't trust anything I've written in this chapter about a class to be true, and if you take bally-dancing and are offended by anything I say I am sorry. I'm actually pretty proud of this chapter. I've been reading a lot of other fanfictions and I feel like I learned form them so I'm hoping that you see a difference... and you like it. Also I feel like I've been leaving out Haru a lot so, yeah. Last thing, I noticed that Kyo has said ass at least once and belly-dancing is a bit... well, I'm changing the rating to K+. Enjoy the chapter!

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><p><strong>Japanese Belly-Dancing Lessons<strong>

I looked up at the sign above the door a little nervously.

"Well at least we know they're creative." My mother said sarcastically.

"Honey, don't judge creativity by the name of the place but by their choreography." Dad chided her and she sighed,

"Well I guess you're right. This is it, Anato, we already paid for everything and we don't want to disturb anyone so we'll be going now." Mom told me looking at me rather guiltily.

"It's fine," I assured them both, "You go on, I'll be fine." I smiled at them and watched them get in the car, then I turned around and started toward the door to the belly-dancing place. It was always like this, it would be like this tomorrow for ballet, my parents were just like that. Whenever they dropped me off to a certain dance class the first time they were always worried that I wouldn't like it or that something would go wrong. I just tried my best not to also feel worried and usually fit in pretty well. I walked in and at first just stood there looking lost for a bit and then someone, who looked like a teacher, saw me and told where to find the proper clothes and changing rooms. I went and got changed and when I came out I looked around to see the familiar sight of people getting ready to learn how to dance. There was a person with blonde hair who was stretching out on the dance floor, a woman who was putting her beautiful, long, black hair up, the teacher who had directed me was helping another student with her outfit, a very familiar black and white haired boy was sitting in the waiting area, a... Wait, what? I looked again and sure enough there was Haru sitting there in the waiting area of a belly-dancing studio. I had to know what was going on. I walked over to him, as it seemed he hadn't seen me yet,

"Um, Haru? What are you doing here?" I asked him. He turned around,

"Ana-chan? Do you take class here?"

"As of today I do but I doubt you take class here."

"No, you see I was trying to get to the grocery store but I got-" he started but got interrupted,

"Oh, do you know him?" We turned to see the teacher from earlier.

"Um, yeah we're friends." I confirmed still pondering possible reasons for Haru be here.

"Well he walked in here asking where the grocery store was or at least that's what I could gather from the odd babble and anyway the grocery store is on the other side of town." She said.

"Oh." I sweat dropped, "Well I haven't known him that long but from some of the stories I hear he has a tendency to get lost, right Haru?" he nodded in confirmation however while I now know why and how he had gotten here I still confused as to why he was still here so I asked, "Um so why haven't you left to go to the grocery store yet?"

"Well you see I didn't want to get swept away (lost) again so I decided to call Hatori and have him pick me up," the cow explained.

"Oh, well that makes sense," I said in understanding then thought, 'Yay, I get to see Hatori again. Briefly, but I get to see him all the same.' Of course the teacher was ready to begin class and announced,

"Well until then we have class so let's get going..." she trailed off waiting for a name.

"Anato, Anato Yuhiko." I introduced myself.

"Hello, you can call me Yamoko-sensei." I nodded and we both went to start class. Now in South Korea I had taken traditional belly-dancing classes but that was a year ago so the first class would be a very necessary review and refresher on the type of movement and style of the dance. And of course that had been traditional belly-dancing and this was Japanese belly-dancing; I was looking forward to seeing the differences between traditional and Japanese belly-dancing. Yamoko-sensei looked at the group of students in front of her. I looked around too and noticed that there were twelve of us, it was a good number, you could break into all sorts of groups with twelve people. Yamoko-sensei looked at us and started to speak.

"Hello class, I'm Yamoko-sensei and welcome to your first Japanese belly-dancing class. By the end of the year you'll know how challenging this style of dance really is. It's not just shaking your hips at boys so that they'll like you." She looked at us sternly as some of us blushed,

"It's a stylized art like any other form of dance and I will expect you to know that." She looked at all of us grimly for one more moment then she surprised us by smiling,

"But that's at the end of the year, this is your first class and you've got to start somewhere. Remember how I said it was stylized? Well part of that style is to be flirtations and sexy," I watched as some of the other girls blushed at this. I had been embarrassed at first too when I heard a similar speech from my teacher in South Korea, she continued,

"I was just saying that there is more to it than that also, but before you can master that I want you all to loosen up a bit. Today we'll start with your hips." And so she started showing us how to use our hips for belly-dancing and how not to. She had us do it the wrong way so that we would know what it felt like and would know to correct ourselves if we found ourselves doing it. I was a bit tentative at first because I was sure that Haru would be watching me but then I started to lose myself in the dance and the music. My confidence grew and then I owned the movement, smiling softly. Then the music stopped and Yamoko-sensei started speaking.

"Anato could you do that again, and everyone else I want you to watch her, look at her expression and her movement."

I was surprised and a bit nervous but then the music started again and, once again, I lost myself to the dance. I mixed in the moves we were allowed to do with the ones we weren't because Yamoko-sensei had encouraged us to do that in this class. I switched easily back and forth between right and wrong, really just doing what I felt the music called for. When the song was over everyone clapped looking impressed. I blushed and smiled, bashful yet again. That's when I heard clapping behind me and turned to see Haru, Hatori, and to my utter astonishment, Momiji standing there looking at me, Haru and Momiji were clapping and Hatori looked surprised. I was completely caught off guard and stared at them for a moment then I started to rush over to them but stopped turning back to Yamoko-sensei,

"Um, I'm really sorry, I promise I won't ever do this again, but could I please go talk to my friends for a second, I- I just-" I looked at her pleadingly. She considered me for a moment then started,

"Well I don't normally do this, and it won't ever happen again, but you did just dance spectacularly and we are doing some of the less innocent moves, so just this once, you can go, quickly." She said rather reluctantly.

"Thank you so much!" I bowed to her in happy relief then turned and rushed over to them.

"Ana-chan, Ana-chan that was amazing! You looked so good and so comfortable out there! It was like you danced like that everyday!" Momiji praised me jumping up and down.

"Thank you, Mo- Momiji, but w- what are you doing here too?" I stuttered red as a tomato.

"I came with Hatori to pick up Haru!" He told me.

"It was my responsibility to watch over him today again, so I had to bring him along." Hatori explained more specifically.

"You were doing really well Ana-chan! You looked amazing!" Momiji praised me again.

"You were really good." Haru agreed.

"Well today we're just learning the wrong and right ways to move your hips and I get really into it when I dance so... yeah..." I told them scratching the back of my head. This was so embarrassing having my boyfriend seeing me dance like that so unexpectedly, and of course I had been demonstrating for the class so it had been just me. I would've been fine if it had been a performance and I was dancing with a group or even if I had a solo but it wasn't a performance, I hadn't had time to mentally prepare myself for dancing like that in front of my sweet innocent Momiji and a bunch of other people as well. My thoughts were interrupted as Momiji continued,

"You could tell how much you love to dance just by looking at you, I can't wait to see the performance!" I smiled at this feeling a little better.

"Thanks Momiji," I mumbled, ever bashful, "I have to get back to class now but I'll see you later, try not to get lost again Haru." I said teasingly then rushed off back to class. Once I got back into the flow of the class again I enjoyed the class immensely and after it was over Yamoko-sensei said that I was almost far enough ahead to go to the next higher class, almost, the final decision would be made when she saw how I could deal with the technique. I have to say it was an exciting first class and I'd never had one quite like it. I just loved how Momiji could take anything I do and make it feel more natural. I couldn't wait to dance for him at the performance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Momiji's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I couldn't stop thinking about how Ana-chan had danced today I just couldn't get the image of her moving the way she had, with that happy expression on her face out of my mind and I was fine with that. I was a little startled when I first saw her shaking her hips the way she was, I had to look twice to make sure it was her, but once I got over the shock, I saw past the movement and saw how happy she was and how she was losing herself in the dance. Also she had been alone on the dance floor with everyone watching, it was like the gods had just said, 'Hey everyone look at this girl, she's amazing.' And I was in awe for a moment that this wonderful creature actually had an interest in me. I also couldn't wait to see her dance again and I knew that the next opportunity would be her performance and I couldn't wait. I let everyone know about it too. On the car ride back to the Sohma Main house I couldn't stop talking,

"Wasn't Ana-chan amazing? Did you see her? Did you see how happy she looked? She looked so happy! She was so confident! I can't wait to see her dance again! Don't you want to see her dance again? I'm so exited!" I paused to breath and Hatori took the opportunity to say something,

"Momiji, calm down. You have to control yourself."

"But she was so good. Didn't you like her dancing?" I asked shocked at his lack of reaction to her dancing.

"She danced beautifully but you are going to drive us all mad if you keep ranting about it." He explained calmly. I calmed down a bit, not a lot, but a bit. Then I turned to Haru and asked,

"What did you think of her dancing, Haru?"

"She was very good. I saw her when she started and she was a bit cautious at first but then I watched her slowly lose herself to the music and it was like she became a different person. It was very interesting to watch." He told me.

"I wish I had seen that." I said while imagining it in my head. I imagined watching as at first her movements were a bit jerky and stiff and smiled at her shy personality, I imagined her movements start to get more fluid and she started to look more comfortable and more happy, then I remembered the dancing I had seen, her confidence and happiness, and how she moved like she owned the dance; and then there were the dance moves themselves. I couldn't deny that I wasn't attracted by just the sight of her hips moving back and forth like that. I just loved everything about her and the way she danced. I sighed.

"I can't wait to see her dance again." I said.

"When's her performance?" Haru asked. I looked at him startled.

"I don't know." I had just realized this.

"Well you're going to have to ask her about that tomorrow aren't you?" He said.

"Yeah, I will." I said as we got the Main house. I went to bed thinking of Ana-chan, her dancing and asking about her performance.

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><p>AN-There you go! Yeah, so, I'm actually really happy with this because I got to add in some more romance as well as include Haru (and Hatori) and show some dancing. Also, I will say again that the confession chapter didn't have enough romance but I've been working on writing romance and I hope it shows. Please review and tell me! It would mean a lot! **REVIEW**! **REVIEW**! **REVIEW**!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N- I'M SOOOOOO SORRY! *gets down on knees and bows* PLEASE FORGIVE ME! Pleas Forgive me! Or at least anyone who hasn't completely forgotten about me please forgive me. The evils procrastination and an overall busy life (full of dance classes, dance rehearsals, school, homework, play practices, and my life in general) had ganged up against me and forced me to not write anything until now! I swear! To make up for it here have- DUN DUN DUN! Their first Date! I promise you THIS chapter has romance and it's not really subtle this time! I hope you like it. Enjoy and Review!

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><p>"Good morning Ana-chan!" A cheerful voice called over to me.<p>

"Good morning Momiji." I replied smiling, as I turned around to see him and Haru walking towards me.

"Ana-chan can I ask you a question?" The small boy asked me.

"Of course you can, what is it?"

"I forgot to ask you when your recital was, do you know when it is? Can you tell me? I really want to be there!" He told me excitedly and my heart soared at the thought of a real chance to show him and all my other friends what I could really do. I was smiling happily when I said,

"Oh sure! It's about four months away on May 15th, we don't know the specific times yet though." I was glad they were asking about it now because now it would be easier for them to plan around it so they could come. I was surprised when Momiji didn't immediately look happy, instead he looked a bit worried.

"But Ana-chan that's so far away, isn't there anything sooner?" He asked me. I stood there a bit surprised for a second then said,

"Well that is kind of the end of year recital... there might be a few lesser ones along the way but I don't know of them yet. I'll tell you as soon as I do though." I assured him and to my relief he cheered up and said,

"Alright! I can't wait!" Throughout this conversation I couldn't help but notice that Haru had been standing there regarding the two of us thoughtfully as if trying to figure out or remember something. I tilted my head with curiosity as I looked at him then he finally seemed to come to some kind of conclusion for he proceeded to ask this question calmly,

"Have you two been on a date yet?"

I froze. Then I thought about it. And I realized that Haru was right we hadn't been on a date yet, well he never said we hadn't, but the point was Haru had brought up a good point, a startling truth. Even though we'd begun dating at least a week and a half ago, if not more, we hadn't been a single date yet! Wasn't that a huge part of having a boyfriend? Surely it isn't called dating for nothing. I know it must seem like I'm making a big deal out of this but when we do have a date it will be my first one, ever, in my life. I'd never made deep enough connections in the other places I'd lived to have any boyfriends before. I had no idea how a date worked at all. What if I made it awkward? What if I look really bad or I embarrass him in front of a lot of people? What would I do then? But then again I have to have a first date sometime and it's better it be with someone I like and trust like Momiji that anyone else. Somehow I thought all of this in only a few seconds which were silent before Momiji's eyes got wide with realization,

"Wow! I didn't even realize! We haven't been on a date yet!" Then his expression change from one of surprise to one of joy, "But we'll have to have one really soon! Come on Ana-chan let's go plan our date!" And with that he dragged me off to who knows where so we could discuss our first date. We both knew that it had to be very special. When we started we were both suggesting an equal amount of ideas, halfway through however Momiji seemed to have an epiphany but wouldn't tell me any thing about it. He said that it was going to be a surprise.

"Is it okay if we don't have it till Saturday?" He finally asked me.

"Saturday is fine with me," I said blushing. I couldn't help it; we were going to go on a date.

"Yay! You don't need to go anywhere, I'll pick you up at your house at around... 1:00, is that alright?"

"Yeah, oh, what should I wear?"

"Oh, something casual I guess, nothing too fancy."

"Ok then, it's a date!" I said smiling.

"Yep, it's a date!" He confirmed beaming.

"What's a date?" Came a voice from behind us. We turned startled but relaxed some when we saw Hana and Uo coming toward us. We often saw them in the mornings because our homerooms were close to each other and they seemed to wander. I smiled and replied,

"This thing, Momiji and I are doing together on Saturday" For a moment they looked a bit surprised then Uo grinned and Hana smiled,

"Good for you kiddo! That's exiting! Gosh it's almost scary to see our little Ana-chan grown up so fast." Uo said.

"Yes, it seems like only yesterday when we met her for the first time." Hana agreed. I laughed,

"Guys, I only met you a few months ago!"

"Yes but you were so innocent back then." Was Hana's reply.

"Not that you're not innocent now, it's just you were more innocent back then." Uo added.

"If you say so." Meeting them in the hall had made me a lot more comfortable around them, which I was grateful for. I turned back to Momiji and saw him smiling me and his smile seemed to say that he loved to see me so relaxed open about myself and was glad that I had lots of friends I could be myself around. I smiled back.

The rest of the week seemed to fly by, probably because of my anticipation of the mysterious adventure I'm to be having, though I did have my first ballet class in Japan. I surprised the teacher with my skill (gained from years of practice) and found that I liked her and her class very much, the piece she'll have us perform should be really good. When I told Momiji this he was just even more excited because it was one more opportunity to see me dancing, he almost hugged me in front of everyone he was so happy. Even during ballet class, though, my thoughts kept going back to the date which unfortunately affected my dancing but only enough for me to notice. Then after what seemed like both forever and no time at all, it was Saturday.

I got up early and immediately was awake so I got up and ate then went to decide what I would wear even though I had hours to go until he would get here. After some thought I chose a black tank-top with one-inch straps under a long-sleeved white shirt that slid of my shoulders along with regular blue-jeans and sandals as well as a red ribbon in my hair. Once I was ready and dressed, I paced all over the house and drove my parents mad until they had to tell me to either calm down or go to my room. I wasn't worried about the date necessarily, I just really hate waiting and I had to wait for what seemed like years for this date, which was of course a complete mystery to me still. Finally after what really felt like ages this time, it was 1:00 and there was a knock at the door.

I rushed to the door, stopped, took a deep breath, and opened the door. And there he stood looking a bit nervous but at the same time excited. Just seeing him there helped calm me down some and I smiled at him. He seemed to relax a bit too when he looked at me and smiled back.

"Hi Ana-chan! Are you ready?"

"Yeah! So... still no hints?" I'd been trying to learn something all week.

"Nope! Come on, let me show you!" His eyes twinkled as he said it.

"Alright. Mom, Dad, I'll see you later!" I called back into the house.

"Have fun!" Mom called back.

"And don't cause too much trouble!" Dad added teasingly. I laughed and rolled my eyes as we closed the door behind us.

"So where to?" I asked.

"You'll see." He said oh so unhelpfully and we set off, him leading the way and me following. I started looking at the beautiful and familiar trees around us like I always did- wait a minute.

"You're not taking me to Shigure's house are you? Because that's not a date Momiji that's what we do almost every day." I said as he led me down the familiar trail.

"Nope! You'll see, just wait!" He said beaming. He led me a bit further then went off the path and into the forest. I was surprised but I excitedly anticipated getting to wherever we were going; after all I loved the forest. After a little ways he stopped and turned to me and said,

"Alright, we're almost there, close your eyes."

"But-" I started but then I was attacked by his puppy eyes, "alright." I closed my eyes and Momiji held my hand and helped me forward making sure to keep me from walking into anything or tripping. At last he stopped.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now." I opened my eyes and gasped. We were standing in a beautiful clearing. The ground was filled with an amazing assortment of wild flowers that took my breath away. There were daisies and daffodils, roses, tulips, jasmine, lilies, and lavender as well as countless that I couldn't name in all kinds of colors. The sun shone down into the clearing and filled it so that it seemed to glow with it's own light. In the middle of the clearing there was a blanket with a basket on it and two plates and glasses, there was also a cooler which surely kept the drinks cold.

"I asked Tohru to cook for us." Momiji whispered in my ear. He smiled at me and asked,

"So, what do you think?"

"What do I think? What do I- This is the most amazingly beautiful place I've ever seen! Momiji, wh- when- no, how did find this place?" I could barely believe this was real.

"I just sort of found this clearing when I was younger and I remembered it when we were talking about our date. I can see how much you like the woods when we walk to Shigure's house so I thought you would like coming here." He said.

"Oh, I love it! I love this so much! Thank you so much, Momiji! I- I don't know what to say. Wow." Momiji glowed with pride and happiness and love until he almost seemed brighter than the clearing. I couldn't hold back another second. I ran over and hugged him fiercely. He puffed and I hugged the adorable rabbit that was the result. We both started laughing and together we laughed then went to the picnic blanket. We sat and I didn't take a bit of food until Momiji changed back. We ate and talked and picked flowers for a what seemed like hours. Hours that I knew I would look back fondly at for years to come. When we had finished our lunches and had talked for a while Momiji said he had another surprise and went over to the cooler. He reached in and brought out an ice cream cone!

"Ice cream!" He cheered.

"Ice cream!" I cheered back surprised. He gave me the cone and turned to get himself one. He rummaged for a minute then turned around a little defeated and sad looking.

"It looks like I forgot to pack two," He said rather sadly, "you keep yours I'm fine."

I looked at him and then at the ice cream cone and then back at him. Then I had an idea.

"Well, we- we could always share." I suggested shyly and hopefully at the same time. I was blushing severely but he started to brighten then he quickly became radiant again.

"Could we?" He asked in what seemed like wonder.

"Yeah, sure, I'm okay with it." I assured him tentatively.

"Yay! Thank you Ana-chan! Thank you so much!" He came over and sat in front of me. I took the cone out of the package and slowly we both leaned in to take a lick. I was very aware of how close his face was as I licked the ice cream cone and he did the same. I never took my eyes off of his as we continued to lick opposite sides. I was surprised it didn't melt from how warm my face was I was blushing so much. My heart was beating at an irrational pace and nearly stopped altogether when he almost licked my finger trying to keep the ice cream from dripping. As then scoop of ice cream go smaller and smaller we had to be more and more careful not to lick each other and both of us were blushing like our lives depended on it. Then it got to the cone part.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Um... we could... take turns?" He suggested.

"Uh, sure I guess that would work, you can go first." I said.

"Okay." And so we took turns licking and biting until it was gone. By that time we looked like a pair of tomatoes having a picnic. We kept glancing at each other and looking away again. I don't know about him but I couldn't stop thinking of all the indirect kisses we just had and somehow blushed even more.

"Well that was... good. I- I'm glad we both got to have the ice cream." I said into the silence.

"It was really good ice cream. We should do that again sometime! Have ice cream, I mean." Momiji said blushing.

"Yeah, we should. We should come out here a lot more often too." I said. Momiji laughed,

"I knew you would like it. Is there a reason you like the woods so much?"

"Not really, I just think it's so beautiful and peaceful. You can come out here and think and just look at all the animals and a lot of the time, no matter where you are in the world, the woods are all really similar. Also I don't feel like I can be a lot more open when I'm in the woods. I don't know why. I've just always loved the woods."

For a long time we just sat next to each other and talked until we decided that we had been out here for quite a while and began to go back home. We held hands and walked back slowly instead Momiji dragging me at the speed of light.

"See isn't this nice?" I had teased him smiling. When we got to my house we just stood there looking at each other for a while.

"I'll see you on Monday." Momiji said.

"Yeah, see you then." It killed me to not be able to hug him goodbye. I probably couldn't have kissed him even if I was brave enough. How would this work? How are we supposed to have a relationship like this? Then my thoughts were interrupted when he kissed my hand. I could still feel his lips on my hand as turned and walked away. Unable to watch any longer I went inside. I leaned on the door after I closed it behind me and took in all that had happened today. I squealed and danced to my room. I was giddy all throughout dinner and even still when I went to bed. I thought it would keep me up but i soon found myself drifting into sleep.

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><p>AN- So there! How's that for romance! I feel accomplished now. My first really romantic chapter. I have to apologize again for the really lateness of this chapter. If anyone cares about why it has a lot to do with the fact that I have ten and a half hours of dance each week plus I'm taking AP US History and other classes that give a lot of homework and I just added play practice to that crazy schedule so the next chapter might take a while too. Another part of the lateness was procrastination but it was only a small part of it. Now that I've ranted about my schedule which I'm sure you don't care about I'd like to ask you to review. A lot of reviews might help motivate me to write another chapter sooner. Then again there are probably only three people who even remember this story existed. Please Review! I hope you enjoyed the chapter.


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